Welding and Fabrication: The Wolf Pack Way

Melanie Stewart is a Quality Engineer at Universal Wolf – leaders in complex metal fabrication

As a Quality Engineer at Universal Wolf, I have seen first-hand how the team brings a special pack quality to our metal welding. As a forward-thinking company, the people at Universal Wolf are always looking out for one another. Each of us brings different qualities to the job, but we all share one characteristic: a desire to improve.

More than any other company I’ve experienced, our colleagues at Universal Wolf are always looking into new technologies and finding new ways to evolve processes, accelerate production times and improve the quality of our welding and fabrication. We embrace a challenge – and we are always looking for new ways to be the best at what we do. This is true across all our welding processes. For instance, if a customer requires a Welder Performance Qualification Record (or WPQR for short) for a specific material, we will always aim to get this sorted quickly with minimal fuss and the support of our partners at NECIT Services.

Investing in people

Universal Wolf is unique as a company because it is always investing in its people. This stems from a fundamental belief in their abilities and a culture that prides itself on a pack ethos. We give our operators the chance to develop new skills – from running new welding procedure approvals to carrying out welding qualifications and learning new processes – not only because it benefits our customers, but because it strengthens our collective skillset and enables our people to progress and develop.

Our wide skillset also gives us a versatility that enables us to stand out in an ever-changing market. This serves us well when it comes to more complex projects. For instance, many of the New Product Introduction (NPI) projects we undertake are complicated from a welding and fabrication perspective, so we draw on the experience and skills of our operators to manufacture parts with maximum quality and cost effectiveness. As well as accommodating the skills they need, we listen to our customers’ specific requests and do our utmost to accommodate them. We always work with our customers, adapt to their needs, and provide support wherever we can.

Do better, work smarter

We are constantly asking ourselves how we can do better, work smarter and add more value to our people. These are values that are imperative where welding is concerned. Good welding is about more than aesthetics. It goes deeper into the structure of the weld. While it may not always be ‘Instagram-friendly’, a good weld is about ensuring a proper structural and mechanical foundation. That means looking at the welds and assessing them in line with quality standards such as BS EN ISO 5817 and BS EN ISO 10042. When they meet the requirements of the standards and are clean and mechanically sound, we can be confident in the product we are supplying to our customer.

The best tools we have at our disposal are our experience and our ability to think outside the box. We are champions at working smarter, whether this is driving new technologies in welding and fabrication, or creating manufacturing jigs to ensure we drive quality into the product. I believe that the biggest mistake is to not look for new ways to make a process easier for the operator or better quality for the customer. When we find a new, more innovative process, we invest in the technologies and fixtures to make it happen.

As a company, we are always looking for new ways to weld better, work smarter, discover new technologies, and invest in our pack. At the end of the day, it’s the people behind the machinery that matter. That’s who we are. And it’s why we continue to grow, to succeed and to deliver for our customers.

About Universal Wolf: www.universalwolf.com