Custom Steel Fabricators Inc was established in the early 1970s in Columbia (Tennessee) with the aim of responding to the area’s industrial requirements for the fabrication of stainless-steel plate and nickel alloys.

Nearly 50 years later, the company is still up-to-date and ready to evolve alongside its growing customer base and changing requirements; it recently invested in PEMA welding solutions to ensure better fitting and welding of large-diameter shells.

Custom Steel Fabricators has two workshops (with a working area of about 50,000ft²) and some 40 employees, and it serves a variety of industries.

Moreover, the company works with all 300-series stainless steels, duplex stainless steels and 6% moly grades — as well as most nickel alloys.

Tony Sciotto, president of Custom Steel Fabricators, said: “As the scope of our work and our customer base grew, one of the challenges we faced in our fabrication process was the fitting and welding of large-diameter shells.

The use of turning rolls and a welding manipulator with a submerged-arc welding (SAW) process assisted, but as the required sizes kept growing, these solutions proved to be inadequate.”

To tackle the challenge and offer various production benefits, the Finnish company Pemamek delivered a PEMA Assembly Station TW5000-25 with side support arms, integrated with a PEMA MD 4.5 x 5 column and boom with a single SAW welding head.

Mr Sciotto said: “Before, our manual fitting was quite accurate, but it was also quite slow. We needed to improve the speed and accuracy of the fit-up of large cylinders with automated solutions, which enable a faster and more efficient process.

“By using the side support arms, we can support the cylinder as we fit the joint — and throughout the welding process — so no more manual fit-ups.”

Custom Steel Fabricators has recently been using the PEMA solutions for working on a 0.5in-thick 2205 duplex stainless fabrication project that is 156in in diameter.