In the early 1990s, metal fabricator H.L. Lyons, Louisville, KY, helped U.S. appliance manufacturers kick-start the stainless-steel revolution. What began as a specialty high-end market grew to sales volumes of thousands per week. As demand kept rising, H. L. Lyons kept looking for more efficient processes for welding and polishing stainless steel. Its breakthrough in productivity came with an investment in inverter welding power supplies-Dynasty 300 DX models from Miller Electric Mfg. Co., Appleton, W1- for pulsed gas-tungsten-arc welding (GTAW). Stainless-steel refrigerator-door production now peaks at 12,000 doors per week, as the new GTAW power supplies have cut welding time in half and reduced finishing time by a third. H.L. Lyons begins refrigerator-door construction with large sheets of 22-gauge Type 304 stainless steel. Two automated forming cells bend and resistance-weld the refrigerator doors into shape, corners are manually GTA-welded, and each door moves to one of five stations for seam welding.
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