How robotic welding and creative thinking solved a supply chain issue.
THE SITUATION
Since 1968, Tiger Mowers has been a leader of industrial mowing equipment throughout North America. They manufacture a variety of durable rotary and flail boom mowers, side mowers and rear mowing equipment, along with truck-mounted boom mowers and a full line of specialty mowing equipment and attachments.
DEGEEST HAS BEEN
A RELIABLE SUPPLIER AND PARTNER TO TIGER MOWERS FOR OVER 45 YEARS
THE CHALLENGE
Tiger Mowers was facing a dilemma. Due to supply chain issues brought on by the covid pandemic, they were told that the high-strength hundred-thousand yield rectangular tubes needed to make the booms for their products would not be available for at least a year.
Only 2 steel mills in the world were making this tubing. One was in the USA, and another in Finland. And neither had a timeline on when they could work this tubing back into their production schedule.
THE SOLUTION
Practically out of options, Tiger Mowers turned to DeGeest for help. With a long-time relationship of over 45 years as a customer, DeGeest has been a reliable supplier and partner to come through for Tiger.
We were able to design and fabricate the tubing they needed using a hundred-thousand yield plate by laser-cutting and forming the parts into 2 halves, tacking them together and robotically seam-welding them using an advanced vision system on the robot from Ries Robotics to create the desired rectangular shaped tube to Tiger’s desired profile.
THE OUTCOME
Due to quick, out-of-the-box thinking, Tiger Mowers was able to continue production instead of being halted indefinitely. As word of this solution spread, DeGeest was contacted by other companies who were faced with a similar situation.