With around 1,000 employees and 25 locations worldwide, Vogelsang is one of the specialists in mechanical engineering for pump and shredding technology. With its machines, the company from Essen-Oldenburg focuses on the areas of waste management, slaughterhouses, the fishing industry and agriculture. Almost every product involves welding work on various materials such as unalloyed and low-alloy structural steels or chrome-nickel steels with a wide range of sheet thicknesses. This variety of work is enhanced by Vogelsang's high level of vertical integration. With the wide range of materials and sheet thicknesses at Vogelsang, the company places high demands on its welding equipment - and on its long-standing partner: "We have been working with EWM for our versatile welding work since the end of the 2000s. Our sheet thicknesses range from 2 to 50 mm and we process a wide variety of materials. It helps to have an experienced partner like EWM who can offer everything from a single source," explains Holger Münchow, Technical Purchasing at Vogelsang.

Creating new welding stations with modern technology

Over the years of good cooperation, Vogelsang has relied more and more on welding technology from EWM. Due to the high relevance of welding work in the machine manufacturer's production process, detailed factors such as a high duty cycle and economical energy consumption are also important for Vogelsang. Ultimately, however, the focus is primarily on the welders themselves: "In addition to a long service life and process reliability, it is particularly important to us that our welders enjoy working with the machines and can easily produce good work results. For us, this starts with welding programs tailored to our materials and sheet thicknesses and generally simple operation and extends to minimizing rework on the welded material," explains Holger Münchow.

Vogelsang relies on Taurus and Phoenix welding machines from EWM for MAG welding. After purchasing the first EWM machines in 2008 and 2009, the company has always relied on EWM's comprehensive product portfolio when replacing its welding technology. The main reason: the consistently good experience with the machines and the associated training, as well as the trusting cooperation. When further machines were to be replaced in 2021 and the welding stations at the Essen-Oldenburg headquarters were to be expanded, the choice quickly fell on the new XQ series from EWM. Vogelsang immediately liked what was possible with the new power sources and, in particular, how user-friendly they are. The company was particularly impressed by the stored jobs for different materials and sheet thicknesses, which simplified the workflow immensely. They enable the welder to make the ideal, pre-programmed machine settings for every task. The quick and uncomplicated availability of spare parts, welding consumables and welding accessories from a single source was also important to the customer, in addition to the modern equipment and future-oriented service.

Open question and answer sessions instead of compressed training

Within two weeks of the inquiry, an appointment was made at Vogelsang's company headquarters. With ten new MIG/MAG-XQ welding machines, the company was quickly able to create state-of-the-art welding stations. From the outset, Vogelsang relied on the company's welders to learn how to use the new technology. In the first few weeks after commissioning, they developed specific questions that arose from the daily changing tasks and requirements. The questions went beyond welding parameters for materials and sheet thicknesses and also included practical tips on the types of welding used. These range from MIG/MAG processes to special TIG work. Vogelsang can now implement both work areas on the same machine with the Phoenix XQ. The main objective of this approach was clearly defined: Compressed training with too much input at once had to be avoided at all costs. "We don't have to explain their job to the welders. However, digital technology is also built into every XQ power source. Intuitive operation makes work steps faster, more efficient and results even better. It's like having a computer at home. It's easy to use these days. But with a few tricks, you can get the most out of it very efficiently," explains Werner Buss, Sales Field Service at EWM.

Today, Vogelsang operates around 80 welding stations at its headquarters - more than half of which are already equipped with EWM. With the new XQ machines and their processes, the company works with very low spatter. This greatly reduces rework. In a few weeks, the XQ welding machines will also have a positive effect on energy and material consumption. The users were also enthusiastic: on the day of commissioning, they would have preferred to replace all their welding machines with the MIG/MAG XQ series. With this enthusiasm among the welders, further cooperation between EWM and Vogelsang to modernize the welding stations is certain.