EuroWire September 2022

Corporate News

Twin resistance spot welding cell at William Hughes’s facility in Dorset, UK

Welded to success with robot welding cells

ready to be measured in William Hughes’s quality department. After two years of manufacturing in Bulgaria, the company landed its first welded assembly for the UK market. By this time, investment in machinery and personnel had led to William Hughes producing its own tooling, allowing more control over design philosophy and greater cost effectiveness. These early projects have now all gone to end of production, but William Hughes’s growth in this area has led to it having a total of 23 MAG robot welding cells and ten spot robot welding cells in its three manufacturing locations.

The William Hughes engineering depart- ment was tasked with understanding the specific tooling required to manufacture this type of product and the investment necessary to bring such tooling manu- facture in-house. After several years of honing knowledge and developing expertise, the team in Bulgaria secured two major contracts. Rear seat welded assemblies typically have approximately 50-60 welds, but for one of the newly secured projects, each frame had a total of 120 welds. Using a mixture of in-house design with support from sub-contract toolmakers, the first William Hughes welding tools were produced. Shortly afterwards, the first tool components appeared and were

William Hughes’s expertise in MIG, MAG, TIG, spot/resistance and butt welding processes has led to it establishing a total of 33 welding cells across its three factories in the UK, Poland and Bulgaria. The company has always been a large volume producer of wires, springs and small welded assemblies for the automotive industry. Twenty years ago, welding was carried out manually or by simple semi-automated machines. However, engineering director Emma Burgon focusedon acquiring a contract for 100 per cent rear seat welded assemblies, having recognised a potential gap in the market at the company’s low-cost facility in Bulgaria.

William Hughes Ltd www.wmhughes.co.uk

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September 2022