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Faced with premature weld failures in a line of skid steers, a manufacturer needed to act quickly to correct the problem.

At the very least, the weak spot meant product reliability and up-time were at stake. Plus, machines with the same potential for failure were still rolling off the production line. Two solutions were required: one that would correct the situation in the field, and another that would ensure it wouldn’t happen again in future pieces of equipment.

Due to an already high work load and the need to come up with a permanent solution quickly, management decided it was time to increase the size of its engineering department. With a phone call, they brought on an experienced team that would use its own tools to take a scientific approach for correcting and preventing the weld failures.

The OEM hired Pioneer Solutions, LLC, Cleveland, OH, a full-service, high-level independent engineering firm founded in 2004. At the company’s core is the former engineering department for Euclid-Hitachi Heavy Equipment, Inc., which had been reorganized as an independent business when the company closed its offices in Cleveland. The company’s heritage has made it a natural for work on large haul trucks, but it has applied its experience to many different sizes and applications of off-highway equipment.

Regardless of how large or small the OEM and its product development team is, there are times when hiring an independent engineering firm can help ensure a successful outcome. Using weld failure and analysis as the back drop, OEM Off-Highway talked with Pioneer Solutions’ Dave Kraninger, director of business development; Paul Pochatila, director of engineering; and Chris Althausen, manager of sales, about what the firm can add to a client’s project.

“Because many of us worked for an OEM for a long time, we still tend to think about the big picture when given a problem,” says Pochatila, who was part of the engineering department at Euclid. “We’re not just trying to solve the problem given to us, but want to ensure the solution doesn’t transfer the issue somewhere else.”

Wander through an equipment junkyard and you can see what correcting metal fatigue and weld failures often means for the end-user: add more steel to the problem area, by either welding over the original seam or tacking on a few scraps of steel.

At the product development level, when it comes to welded joints, “engineers are often more concerned about the strength of the actual weld, rather than the affect that weld’s existence might have on the component or machine” says Pochatila. “However, in a large structure there are very few welds that I would classify as a primary load-carrying joint. If the weld fails it is often because it’s in a higher stress area of the part,” in which case the part should be redesigned or the weld moved.

Adding more steel isn’t always the answer, either. Sometimes removing metal will do the trick, allowing the part to flex.

Kraninger says: “the depth we bring to something such as weld analysis comes from our experience in working on everything from a wheel loader bucket to aerial lift booms on up to a mining truck’s frame.”