Aiming high with Welser profiles

Both family owned companies, Welser Profile and Peri, are global players and technology leaders due to high-quality products, sustainable and efficient working procedures as well as a lot of experience in the respective business lines. Starting point for the efforts of both our companies is the benefit of our customers in the construction industry; in this particular example this refers to the companies and their employees who want to quickly assemble scaffolds or use them in a flexible, yet safe manner.

For this purpose, Peri has developed a modular scaffold system where the regular assembly can be carried out nearly without any complex coupler-connections. An integral component of the scaffold is a deck with integrated lift-off protection, available in a great variety of dimensions, offering thus highly flexible deployment and a reinforcement effect for the scaffold system.

“The construction industry requires stable specifications ever since and consequentially a stable level of quality and high process reliability”, this is how Dipl.-Ing. Bolz summarizes the key issues in an interview with Key Account Manager Johannes Deichsel from Welser Profile.

No sooner said than done - the search for sources of supply started. As a result, there was no way around Welser Profile with its 350-years lasting experience in the metal working sector:
Our first joint development was a deck for a frame scaffold made of pre-galvanized steel strip for increased corrosion resistance in 1997. It goes without saying that upon request we keep technical details confidential, however, at the same time we are pleased to share experiences gained from other markets as well as details about non-protected products and processes. Peri also could draw benefit from this way of proceeding and the jointly developed decks soon became more popular than other scaffold systems already well-established in the market.

In 2004, Peri broadened its portfolio by adding a modular scaffold system to facilitate a more flexible assembly and a light-weight system. In this context, the highly sophisticated punching technology used at Welser Profile played an important role. The deep-drawn punched holes not only had to fulfil an important role in statics, but also provided a high level of anti-slip effect.

Until that point in time decks had been riveted manually. During the big construction boom in 2007 and 2008, however, larger sales volumes were needed which could not be overcome in the traditional way. After about 18 months of intense development, Welser Profile was able to start the new production using an optimized automatic riveting system. In addition to an increased process liability through a 100% inspection of the rivets, the production process was considerably more cost-effective and all this ensuring our usual high level of quality.

Edificio Ágora – the unique and clear structure of a modular scaffold system is self-descriptive and stands for a quick and safe assembly. (Credits: Peri)

However, as standing still is going backwards, Peri strived for further improvement of corrosion resistance, allowing for the use of its products among other fields also in offshore areas. This could be achieved by means of posterior galvanizing of the decks, enabling thus that profile systems could be welded from that moment on. A new generation of decks had emerged.

Dipl.-Ing. Bolz:“Our objective is to maintain the high quality level of products provided by Welser.Therefore, we refrain from welding ourselves, but we rather prefer to obtain everything from a single source; we are surely quite good at welding, but we keep on focusing on quality from one single source”

At the beginning, this corrosion resistant deck was planned to be sold in parallel to the existing systems; this was the reason why we opted for a rather low production output during the initial stage. We could work with the same edges and safety clips (however, this time non-galvanized) which turned out to be a big advantage and highly cost saving.

Welser Profile could rely on its own welding robots to produce the decks for Peri in the required length, but we also used welding devices developed by our own.
Simultaneously, Peri developed a special technique of galvanizing together with their long-term partners to ensure that the safety clips remain freely movable even after galvanizing. Eventually, the new decks were not only cheaper, but also more light-weight and sturdy.

The construction industry expects high quality ever since as otherwise safety would be jeopardized. This is what Peri expects from Welser, too.

The initially predicted amount of about 150,000 decks per year could be exceeded as soon as in 2014, a reason for Welser to approach Peri to recommend further optimization steps: The suggestion to move towards fully automatic riveting was welcome with open arms. After all, product safety remains a critical issue: The modification of the processes and the use of special rivets for subsequent galvanizing facilitated an increase of production capacities at Welser Profile. As a side effect we could triple profile production.

“The decks are weight-optimized until the last gram! We provide the specifications and the Welser-team takes care of the rest”, states Dipl.-Ing. Bolz.

The first prototypes were produced in the middle of 2015 and as early as in November 2015 mass-production was started. By February 2016 production output reached 18,000 decks per week, an amount which equals to about 26,000 rm deck profiles, 36,000 riveted decks and 324,000 rivets!

Should this be the end of the story? Not at all... Just in time for the Bauma 2106 in Munich, a brand new framework scaffold system was introduced. In addition, the most recent generation of decks could be finished and presented to the interested visitors. The feedback on the current generation of decks was overwhelming and the approach adopted by using anti-slip knops was very well received. And we at Welser and Peri are sure: This joint story will continue!

Just in time for the Bauma 2106 in Munich a brand new framework scaffold system was presented. (Credits: Peri)

Company Info Peri:

PERI, with its headquarters in Weißenhorn close to Ulm is one of the biggest producers of formwork and scaffolds worldwide.In addition to innovative systems, Peri offers complementary services to optimize the processes related to its products.The 7700 employees worldwide take care of Peri’s customers, addressing their needs in more than 60 country units, many more subsidiaries and sales offices as well as in 120 logistics centres.