Category Archive: Uncategorized
Since our company was started over 90 years ago, we have been focused on a variety of services, including bulk gas installations, CO2 and nitrogen gas filling, welding equipment repairs, and training and certifying procedures. As welding continues to be a core part of our business, we are constantly collaborating with schools and institutes that offer welding education. We believe that when our staff is properly trained in traditional and new technologies, they can perform the best work for our customers.
In house, we currently train and certify those interested in mig, tig, and stick welding. Our knowledgeable and experienced team has many years of welding expertise to share and can provide custom instruction. Various companies have come to us to train and certify their staffs for safe and proper welding of pipe and plate products using different welding techniques. We can also provide instruction on welding practices for aluminum, steel, and stainless steel materials.
Our staff can organize AWS and ASME welding certification courses either at our facility or at yours for up to six welders. We also offer an introductory course that is aimed at welding for hobbyists. If you have an old auto that needs repairing or are interesting in building something from scratch, this course will teach you safe welding practices and procedures. A small class size and individual time with the course instructor ensure that students learn and get the chance to work on their own projects using our new equipment.
In addition to our welding instruction courses, we work collaboratively with the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology to offer technical training courses and specialized in-plant programs for companies. Hobart’s hands-on, technical, and safety training is a great program because it is an industry leading institute that has successfully trained over 100,000 students in the past 80 years.
Miller Electric Manufacturing is a welding company that is associated with the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology. We work with Miller Electric to coordinate training on new machinery and equipment. Miller’s trademark blue equipment has been around since 1929 and is primarily composed of affordable welding products. Their extensive history of producing welding products began when they began to manufacture a welder with a built-in wire feeder, the Millermatic 35. In addition to their innovative and advanced products, Miller also complies with a number of different safety and equipment standards.
Another popular welding company is Lincoln Electric. Since the late 1800s, Lincoln has been a leader in the welding technology space. Their traditionally red equipment is available for a number of different operations, including welding, cutting, and automation. As a leader in the welding arena, Lincoln serves a long list of industries, such as the automotive, offshore, pipeline, nuclear, and thermal energy industries.
If you’re interested in learning more about our welding services or our welding education instruction programs, please contact us for more information.
The New Year is now underway—do you know what that means? It’s time for us, as a company, to look back at our successes of the past year and work to capitalize on them in the coming year. This past year proved to be a record year for Sutton Garten is sales, and that is something we only hope continues into 2014. In order to maintain our success amidst a stagnant U.S. economy, our biggest goal of the new year is this: become more diversified so that we can weather any future economic downturns.
Diversifying our company has certainly helped to make us more available to our customers; we plan on using this foundation to continue adding capabilities to our forte. Here’s a quick rundown of what lies ahead in 2014 for us:
CO2: As we garner more interest from customers in the CO2 division, we are looking at investing in another bulk CO2 truck or increasing our current horizontal tank and replacing it with a vertical CO2 tank.
Welding: Our welding training classes have been expanding and our relationship with the Independent Welding Distributors Cooperative (IWDC) remains strong.
Product line: The inventory of our product line will be increasing, as Hypertherm will be introducing a new plasma cutting line, Miller continues to develop an air filtering line of equipment, and ColdJet’s dry ice blasting equipment remains a high seller and renter.
Trade shows: We just returned from the PRI trade show, and we plan on attending other industry shows throughout the coming year, so that we remain on top of the industry.
While this has certainly been a successful year for us, we have our hands full when it comes to making 2014 an even better year for our company. We hope you’re a part of it!
Environmentalists around the world have been talking about the negative impact of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on our environment for decades now. It seems as though every day we hear complaints about CO2’s relationship to rising sea levels, extreme weather, and climate change. Heat waves, superstorms, and deadly tornados are routinely blamed on the climate change environmentalists believe is caused, in large part, by CO2 emissions.
But, over the past few years in particular, we’ve seen businesses and industries working together to develop ways to reduce CO2 emissions. Everyone seems to have “sustainability” and the protection of our environment in mind. Reports say U.S. carbon emissions have “declined at an impressive rate given the absence of any cohesive federal climate change policy.” Everyone’s making an effort and doing their part.
The sectors cited as the top two CO2 emissions producers are the transportation industry and electricity generation. These industries, as well as others with processes that emit CO2, have been modifying their operations and cutting back on their CO2 emissions.
At Sutton-Garten, we’re also doing our part to help our environment by using recaptured CO2 emitted through the production of ethanol. We’re taking something that’s perceived to be hazardous or “bad” and making it “good” by putting it to good use!
Our CO2 is used for beverage systems, welding, pH control of water, and dry ice production.. By recapturing the CO2 and doing these things, we’re also helping the ethanol plants be more productive and environmentally friendly… It’s a win-win situation for everyone!
As a compact, easily transportable product, liquid nitrogen has been used in a range of industries and applications for many years. Its beneficial uses include cryogenics, backup nitrogen, shrink-welding of machinery, various cooling applications, HVAC industry usage, sample preservation, beer production, and many food storage, preservation, and preparation methods.
Especially popular in the food industry, its use has dated all the way back to the late 1800’s. In more modern times, liquid nitrogen’s rapid chilling had made it extremely beneficial. Nowadays, it is even being used to quickly freeze cocktails and chill glasses, create a fun, smoky presentation for food and drinks and in the ever-trendy world of molecular gastronomy.
As a company with a great deal of experience with other gases—we have four bulk carbon dioxide trucks—we are very excited to now have a bulk liquid nitrogen trailer. This will allow for countless clients to use liquid nitrogen for food processing purposes, as well as many others.
For instance we have one client that uses liquid nitrogen in soda bottles. The nitrogen makes the bottle expand and helps increase the strength of the bottles, allowing for better stackability. Another customer uses it to make ice cream; due to the formation of smaller ice crystals as a result of the liquid nitrogen, the product is smoother because of it. This new trailer means we can offer bulk supplies to our customers.
Whatever its use or purpose—fun or functional, food or industrial—you’ll find the bulk liquid nitrogen supply to be just what your company needed.
In its mission to protect welding workers nationwide, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) recently turned its attention to cutting down on the use of manganese in welding wire. Welding wire is often composed of many different materials and elements, including manganese, which helps prevent corrosion when added to steel. The problem for welders and other industrial workers, according to OSHA, is created when manganese fumes or dust particles are inhaled on a regular basis.
Exposure to manganese fumes can cause injury to the human brain and central nervous system. Research has shown that inhalation of manganese fumes creates neurophysiological effects, including conditions known as “manganism” and “metal fume fever.” OSHA defines “manganism” as a condition that mimics Parkinson’s Disease – it causes people to have gait disturbances, clumsiness, tremors, speech disturbances, and psychological issues. “Metal fume fever,” according to OSHA, is a temporary condition caused by inhaling manganese fumes, often with symptoms such as chills, fever, upset stomach, vomiting, dryness of the throat, cough, weakness, and achiness.
OSHA works closely with the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) to determine its weld fume particulate regulations. A recent article in The Fabricator, published by the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, Int’l, says, “The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) recommended a 10-fold reduction in the time-weighted average (TWA) (measured over an eight-hour shift) threshold limit value (TLV) for respirable manganese particulate. The association reduced the respirable TLV-TWA limit of 0.2 mg/m3 to 0.02 mg/m3. According to the new TLV, a person should not breathe in more than 0.02 milligrams per cubic meter of air (mg/m3) of manganese over an eight-hour work period.”
Within the last decade, similar requirements were established in Europe, and now they’re being adopted in the U.S. These new guidelines dramatically reduce manganese exposure limits and cause companies in the welding community in the U.S. to rethink their operations and safety plans.
What’s being done now? Both Miller Electric and Hobart Filler Metals have developed new products to meet this challenge. Companies are installing fume extraction systems and using fume extraction guns, along with requiring employees to wear respiratory protection masks or helmets. Additionally, welding wire is now being manufactured with much lower levels of manganese in order to help companies meet OSHA’s new guidelines for working with manganese fumes. Industry is now beginning to take a proactive approach to the safety of its welders—and so should you.
For more than a year now, manufacturers across the U.S. have been facing a skills gap: There just aren’t enough skilled workers available today to fill key manufacturing jobs – welders, machinists, industrial machinery mechanics, etc. According to one recent poll by Industry Week, more than half of the manufacturers surveyed said, “We need skilled workers today…” and another 28% said, “We’re okay now but the future is troubling.”
Another report by the American Enterprise Institute earlier this year said we will be facing “a future high-skills gap in manufacturing that could approach 875,000 machinists, welders, industrial engineers, and industrial machinery mechanics by 2020…” 875,000? That’s a lot of open jobs that will be waiting to be filled! Even as the economy continues to slowly recover, the manufacturing skills gap will continue to grow unless more people start to get the proper training they need to master specialized skills and to obtain the required certifications.
At Sutton-Garten, we believe we’re doing our part to narrow the manufacturing skills gap: We offer hands-on welding training classes. The types of classes range from introductory courses for individuals and groups to specialized/customized classes and training for companies doing all types of welding. We also offer certifications for MIG, TIG, and stick welding.
In addition to our welding training classes, our commitment to welding education extends to high schools in the area. Sutton-Garten proudly sponsors teams in the AWS Midwest Team Welding Competition each year. As proud U.S. manufacturers, we are doing our best to improve the current and future state of manufacturing.
As spring has gotten underway, things have really picked up here at Sutton Garten. By this, we mean we have been involved in a lot of different industry events! Let us tell you about them.
AWS Chapter meeting: As members of the AWS, we often attend chapter meetings, to keep in touch with other members within the industry and stay on top of any new technologies or trends in the welding world. This past April 2nd, we hosted the chapter meeting, something we typically do about once a year. At this meeting, we discussed and demonstrated a new piece of Miller welding equipment, in order to show how to build up your welding facility and fleet of equipment.
Midwest Team Welding Competition: On April 24th and 25th, the Midwest Team Welding Competition, sponsored by AWS, was held at the JE Light Career Center. Essentially, the competition includes teams of high school students from various vocational schools in the area, encouraging them to compete in welding contests. Specifically, we sponsored the TIG welding content, as we have been a part of the competition for some time, and want to help build up schools that are training students in the welding methods.
Although a busy month, April helped get us more involved in the welding community—something we are continuously working on!
Whatever the industry, if there are welding operations, there is potential for a wide variety of hazards. At Sutton-Garten, keeping the welding community safe has been, and always will be, a top priority. Some of the hazards affiliated with welding that can cause complex safety and health issues are:
- Toxic gases and fumes
- Explosions
- Fires
- Arc radiation
- Noise
- Electrical shocks.
According to the OSHA website, “Welding, cutting, and brazing are hazardous activities that pose a unique combination of both safety and health risks to more than 500,000 workers in a wide variety of industries. The risk from fatal injuries alone is more than four deaths per thousand workers over a working lifetime.” OSHA also discusses the hazards of hexavalent chromium, compounds which can be formed during the welding process. If inhaled, hexavalent chromium can literally burn our insides, and dangers like this have caused OSHA to raise safety standards and to require monitored air filtration systems in welding environments.
We believe there’s a “safety evolution” happening in all industries, and we’ve seen OSHA raise standards and offer specific safety guidelines for the different industries employing welding practices. Additionally, there are specialized standards to meet as well for particular types of welding.
At Sutton-Garten, we’re happy to see that industries are continuing to evolve and to become more focused on safety issues and on hazards prevention. We offer a complete line of welding safety equipment, including gloves, helmets and more. Like we said before, keeping the welding community safe is, and always will be, a top priority for us at Sutton-Garten!
What’s the newest addition to the Sutton Garten family? The fleet of blasting machines we are now introducing to our rental department.
Specifically, we have added a ColdJet blasting machine, the SFDI Select 60. Available for daily, weekly, or monthly rentals, our five units are used primarily for food, packaging, mold, water remediation, and foundry cleaning applications. Instead of using water, soda, or sand for the blasting, this particular machine uses dry ice. By doing so, it leaves behind no secondary waste, as it dissolves into a gas. Water, soda, and sand, on the other hand, leave material waste behind.
One reason we are excited to introduce this machine is because of the various features it entails. Not only can this machine clean from as low as 50 cfm, which helps to eliminate compressed air and reduces noise levels, but it also has blast pressures ranging from 65 to 250 PSI. Additionally, it has a feed rate of 0 to 6 lbs. per minute.
The SFDI Select 60 joins our fleet of other ColdJet blasting machines, including the Aero 30, Aero 40, and Aero 80. How do we use these machines ourselves? Not only do we use these machines for contract cleaning, but we also make and supply the dry ice along with the machine. Interested in renting one of our dry ice machines? Check out our whole fleet to choose the right one!
2012 was a great year here at Sutton-Garten with record sales in almost every category – welding machines, filler metals, rentals and gases.
As we look forward to the year ahead, we hope that sales growth continues. Change continues in almost all of our markets, including:
Welding Machinery – New and better equipment continues to be introduced by the manufacturers. Miller has exciting new products to enable faster production rates and higher quality. With the continuing shortage of qualified welders, the new equipment makes it easier to obtain the quality welds you need in your processes. Hypertherm has continued their improvements in plasma cutting equipment with the introduction of the Powermax 105 and MaxPro 200. Their HyDefinition products give laser-like quality at substantial cost savings.
Filler Metals – Suppliers continue to develop new welding filler metals that give higher deposition rates with existing machines. Flux cored wires from Alloy Rods and Lincoln can replace hard wires and give much higher weld speeds and lower overall costs.
Helium supply – The availability of helium has gotten somewhat better even though pricing continues to be quite high. We have locked in a supply of high quality helium that will take care of existing customers, and allow some growth. We will also continue to work with customers in changing their process so they can eliminate helium and use lower cost gases that give the same or improved results.
Beverage gases and Dry Ice – Our CO2 Division continues to grow and a new long-term supply agreement will stabilize our pricing. We have doubled our dry ice capacity and continue to supply “the freshest and best dry ice in town.”
Welding Classes – Our Welding Classes and Certification testing have been very popular with existing and new customers. Give us a call for any of your weld training and testing needs.
We are looking forward to making 2013 another year of record sales and hope to bring in even more new customers. Wish us luck on our resolutions and make sure to check in for more news!
