Terex Utilities’ new Pedestal Welding station allows workers to weld large pedestals while seated.Terex Utilities, a division of Terex Aerial Work Platforms (AWP), won Humantech’s sixth annual Find It – Fix It Challenge by designing a workstation for its employees that weld large pedestals.
Terex Utilities workers weld a vertical gusset and top plate to the metal shell of pedestals that connect a boom to a truck chassis and also house the bearing that allows a boom to rotate. They fabricate these pedestals for digger derrick units to aerial devices which operate up to 125 feet. Terex set out to allow a worker to weld these pedestals without having to crawl in and out of each of them up to 8 times before the job is done.
And it wasn’t just the annoyance of crawling in and out that needed to be eliminated. While welding inside the pedestal, air temperatures skyrocket while the welder lies on a blanket for protection while wearing welding leathers. Not the most comfortable of work environments.
Terex’s Pedestal Weld Station entry fixes the problem by fabricating a steel welding table to hold the pedestal in a vertical position. Now the welder can work while seated rather than in the “Butts Up” position, as the company refers to it. And without all the crawling in and out, cycle times were reduced by 20 minutes.
The Find It – Fix It Challenge recognizes and rewards improvements to the workplace that increase productivity, boost worker morale, and reduce workplace injuries and illnesses.
Humantech awarded honorable mentions to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in San Angelo, Texas, and to Senior Aerospace Metal Bellows in Sharon, Massachusetts. Of the 150 entries–representing 24 companies–received for the contest, Humantech selected one winner and recognized two companies with honorable mentions.
