AriZona Beverage is an American company based in the state of New York and specializing in the production of Iced Tea for mass consumption. In this industry, it is critical that the company provides a high-quality beverage product by eliminating the risk of bacteria contamination in the sanitary piping systems. Since 1992, the company made it its mission to bring great-tasting products to the customers by using top-quality ingredients that are presented in uniquely designed packaging.
AriZona Beverage has an important filtration device needed for the production of iced tea. The filtration system filtrates the water to make it purer and clean in order to make the Arizona Iced Tea products.
This installation involves many welds and regular repairs on stainless steel tubes. The sanitary tubes have outside diameters from 2 "to 8" (60 to 220 mm) but mostly the welders need to weld tubes with outside diameter between 4" and 6" (114 and 169 mm).
Even though the Iced Tea specialist has skilled welders working in their plant, the quality of the manual welds was not always consistent, and some joints were subject to a risk of leaking. In addition to the requirement for quality, there was an important volume of welds to achieve.
The problems encountered both in terms of weld volume and the quality of the welds pushed AriZona Beverage to question the welding process they used.
Until then the cuts were made with a bandsaw and the welds with a manual TIG welding power source. When beginning in welding sanitary tube, the training on a manual TIG welding power supply can be difficult and a long learning process before being able to make high quality and consistent sanitary welds.
After several Internet searches, AriZona Beverage found out about the AXXAIR’s complete orbital process for process piping fabrication and installation. They were particularly interested in the automation of their welding process by means of orbital TIG welding machines. They also understood that using orbital welding requires a perfect tube preparation.
AriZona Beverage has contacted several orbital solution manufacturers but only AXXAIR has been able to perfectly meet its needs, particularly in terms of welding range.
AXXAIR USA has provided advice and support to AriZona Beverage to help the company with this project and help it to choose the most suitable equipment for its production.
The company has therefore chosen the following orbital solutions:
- a CC222 orbital cutting machine with its tripod stand
- an orbital TIG welding power source SAXX-200
- an open welding head
... and accessories and consumables such as the purge kits, cutting blades, electrodes etc.
The choice of an open welding head responds to the different diameters the company has to weld but also to the different welding configurations they might face. The open head not only allows you to quickly switch from one diameter to another, but also to tilt the torch and to use wire.
The AXXAIR USA team trained AriZona staff to quickly and easily take the equipment into their own hands. Our experts keep being available for any questions the company may have.
Kevin Chmura, one of the company's welders, is particularly pleased with the training. He expected a long and complicated training and experienced quite the opposite. AXXAIR machines are very user-friendly, he could quickly control them and they are very intuitive. He is comforted that the machines are easy to use and is very impressed with the products.
Overall, the AXXAIR orbital equipment will help Arizona Beverage to be more productive by automating their welding process.
When the team has a lot of volume of tube to weld, one person cuts, another one tacks and another welds the tube with the orbital welder. Some welds will still be made by hand. But since the process is more harmonized it will be easier, more productive and the quality will be improved.
We thank AriZona Beverage for their testimony and the trust they place in us !
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AriZona Beverage is an American company based in the state of New York and specializing in the production of Iced Tea for mass consumption.
