Welding

O’Neal Manufacturing Services (OMS) offers a variety of welding capabilities including TIG and MIG arc welding, laser welding, projection welding, resistance and spot welding, and stud and stick welding.  Certified welders and welding inspectors ensure your steel, aluminum, or stainless steel fabricated parts are well-made, tested, and structurally sound.  Our experienced teams can accommodate lightweight subassemblies to weldments weighing more than 40,000 lbs. Experience significant savings to your supply chain by transitioning your high labor, multi-stage subassemblies and weldments to O’Neal Manufacturing Services. Find more information on welding methods here.

Certified and Qualified Welding Services

The following weld certifications are in place at multiple facilities:

• ISO 9001:2015
• American Welding Society D1.1
• Association of American Railroads
• Canadian Welding Bureau
• Caterpillar 7 Steps of Weld Excellence

Welding Methods Explained

MIG Welding

Metal inert gas or MIG welding is one of the most versatile processes used to join metals.  MIG welding incorporates a shielding gas with a solid electrode wire that is continuously fed into a hand-held MIG torch. The heat produced from an electric arc melts the wire onto the base material creating a weld pool that fuses them together. Both skilled welders and robotic welding machines perform a variety of MIG welds on steel or stainless steel.  This welding method is preferable for thicker material and for fill passes in thick-wall pipe welds.

TIG Welding

TIG or tungsten inert gas welding is ideal for specific penetration on thinner materials requiring precision welds. This welding method incorporates a tungsten electrode arc from the welding torch with a separate metal filler rod. A small, intense arc heats the base metal until it melts, then the filler rod is dipped into the melted pool, and the two pieces begin to join. TIG welding arcs produce less spatter than MIG arcs, offering a good amount of control for the user and a cleaner finish.

Stick Welding

The stick welding method is one of the simplest and most cost-efficient processes of joining materials.  A flux-coated rod and the metal workpieces are melted together at one point to form a weld pool.  As the pool cools, the joint between the two metals forms a sturdy bond. No shielding gas is needed in this process which is widely used on steel, aluminum, nickel, and copper alloys.  Stick welding tends to create molten splatter, and finished products require more cleaning and sanding than other arc welding methods.

Stud Welding

Stud welding joins a fastener to a metal object or surface by way of an electric arc.  As the fastener heats up and the surface area melts, the fastener is manipulated into position and the weld is formed.  There are two types of stud welding; drawn arc and capacitor discharge. Drawn arc welding required both the fastener and the base material to be heated.  Capacitor discharge creates some of the fastest stud welds, using a stud gun to trigger the weld charge and melt the fastener head to the base material simultaneously.

Robotic Welding

O’Neal Manufacturing Services offers robotic welding to automate both the welding process and the handling of the base metal part.  Skilled welders maintain programming control while the robotic technology scans, positions, and welds parts in a repetitive, uninterrupted workflow. Often used in mass production, robotic welding is well suited for short welds with curved surfaces.

Laser Welding

The term laser welding means light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.  Laser welding generates a highly concentrated beam of light to produce a metal-to-metal weld with no filler material needed. The beam of light is amplified and directed on the material seams until they reach a melting point which fuses the two surfaces together.  Gas, solid-state, and fiber are the most common types of laser welding technologies.  Each produces a cleaner edge with improved perpendicularity than other forms of flame cutting.  The laser welding process is excellent for cutting carbon steel, low alloy steel, aluminum, and stainless-steel material from light gauge to heavier gauge thickness and plate.

Projection Welding

Unlike arc welding, projection is a form of resistance welding.  This method uses pressure and an electrical current to join metal parts.  Projections or dimples are manufactured on the base material.  As parts are brought together, an electrical current is focused on the projection points, which generates heat through an electric pulse in these specific locations. Force is applied from upper and lower plateaus connecting the parts together as the current is applied.  Projection welding is commonly used to weld connectors such as bolts, nuts, and screws to base metal parts.

Resistance Spot-welding 

Spot welding is another form of resistance welding.  This method utilizes a pair of water-cooled copper electrodes to clamp two workpieces together and pass an electric current between them.  The electrical resistance of the part material generates enough heat to form a weld nugget that bonds the pieces together.  This type of welding is used to manufacture pipe, tubing, and smaller structural sections, and is popular in the automotive industry as well as others manufacturing products made of thinner gauge materials.

A Commitment to Quality

OMS offers vertically integrated turnkey manufacturing processes including extensive in-house 2^nd and 3^rd step processing capabilities. Our fully automated welding equipment represents the most current in technology. Our ISO 9001:2015 certified facilities offer significant capacity and manufacturing redundancies. We practice collaboration on new and existing products using our Value-Analysis/Value-Engineering (VA/VE) process. This allows us to validate the manufacturing process prior to production, saving development time, reducing costs and delivering on schedule every time.