Passing the portability test

A repair manager puts a new portable MIG welder through the paces

by Ken Stanzel

It wasn’t that plant maintenance languished before. With hundreds of welders, welding generators, wire feeders and metal forming equipment on hand at Tri-City Mechanical, Repair Manager Martin Kellogg managed to keep the Chandler, Arizona, plumbing, mechanical and HVAC contractor in production mode.

When Kellogg started with the company four years ago and the table on a coil line was bent and needed repair, he assembled a cadre of equipment and lugged a heavy 250-amp welder and an 80-cubic-foot cylinder of shielding gas to the site — to spend about 30 seconds welding a single three-inch by three-inch piece of angle iron to level the table. Then he lugged it all back.

The same went for other in-shop repairs and equipment modifications. After figuring out what he needed to do to get the equipment back in operation or convert it to a new use, he would go back to his welding shop and gather his equipment and slowly cart it over to the job site. And if the welding needed to be done in a tight space or off the floor, he just had to hope that his MIG gun was long enough. If not, he needed to get out a Stick welder. If the project was large, this meant wasting time chipping slag and changing electrodes every 60 seconds.

That was life then. Now, instead of taking 20 minutes or more to make a 30-second weld, Kellogg simply picks up his all-in-one welding unit, walks to the repair site, plugs it in to a 115- or 230-Volt outlet, makes the weld and walks back to his office by the tool crib. If the welding needs to be done in a tight space or well off the ground, the portable welder can go wherever Kellogg goes, allowing him to always use MIG, his preferred welding process.

The tool that lets Kellogg do this is the Millermatic Passport MIG Welder, which weighs just 56 pounds. Inverter technology offers Kellogg unparalleled arc starts and arc performance in a very small package It even includes an internal CO2 shielding gas cylinder (actually a paintball cylinder) that can deliver up to 25 minutes of welding time — enough to make a weld 25 feet long.

Tri-City knows the meaning of flexibility. Founded in 1962 as a residential HVAC contractor for custom homes and tract homebuilders, Tri-City Mechanical eventually shifted its focus to commercial projects and in 1997 changed its name from Tri-City Air Conditioning to Tri-City Mechanical to reflect the company’s expansion into mechanical and process piping, plumbing and temperature controls. Today, as a division of Comfort Systems USA, Tri-City designs, manufactures and installs the mechanical and plumbing systems in major hospitals, schools, federal prisons, manufacturing facilities, office and retail buildings and more. Kellogg is always on the move.

Grab-N-Go
Recently, Kellogg was charged with modifying an old Linde shape-cutting machine by attaching a rail on the side for the lead hangers to slide onto. In the past, this task would have meant a time consuming process of assembling and transporting welding equipment to the site. With the Passport, Kellogg simply grabbed the welder and power cord and went to work on the rail.

The Passport’s portability greatly reduces the time it takes to get to and from a repair, such as this sheet metal conveyor table.

“That Passport really is something else,” he said. “I was really happy I didn’t have to drag a larger MIG welder over for that job. You don’t think of a machine like a Millermatic 135 as a ‘large’ or cumbersome welder until you carry a Passport.”

Kellogg was equally impressed by the arc quality and weld penetration delivered by the Passport. “The rail material was about 3/8-in. thick, and it had no problem with penetration,” he said. “I love the way the Passport starts and runs, too. It doesn’t crack and pop and spatter at me when I start the weld. It’s a very smooth start, way better than non-inverter welders.”

An exclusive Multi-Voltage Plug (MVP) allows it to be plugged into either a 115- or 230-Volt single phase outlet. Used with 115-Volt power, the unit produces 30- to 140-amp output and can weld mild steel up to 1/4 inches thick. Plugged into a 230-Volt outlet, it puts out a total of 180 amps and can make high penetration welds on mild steel up to 3/8 inches thick.

Exclusive Auto-Line technology automatically recognizes 115- through 230-Volt single-phase power without the operator having to remove the cover to re-link the power source. An LVC line-voltage compensation feature further adapts to fluctuations in input power, up to plus or minus 10 percent, without any change in output current.

The internal gas bottle is strictly CO2, but for bigger jobs or where a different gas mixture is called for, the unit also has a conventional inlet for an external shielding gas source. The pure CO2 of the internal cylinder produces a deeper, narrower weld bead, which helps when working on thicker material. When Kellogg needs a shallower, wider bead for his repairs, he also carries a small cylinder of C25 (75 percent argon/25 percent  CO2).

“The pure CO2 has a very sharp finger of penetration, so if I had to repair something in the shop that had good fit up and needed deep penetration, I would use the internal CO2 bottle,” Kellogg said. “However, when I have a bigger gap to fill, I use the argon/CO2 mix. This spreads the puddle out and fills the gap better. It all depends on the application.”

Returning from repairing the press brake in the background, Kellogg simply unplugs his Passport, picks it up and walks away.

On repair sites, Kellogg saves time and energy putting the Passport to use repairing pipes, ductwork and even other welders when they break. “There’s a significant difference in the amount of time it takes me to get the Passport to the repair site compared to getting one of the larger MIG welders I used before,” Kellogg said. “I don’t have to string extension cords, which ends up requiring more current to get the same amount of power to the welder due to cord voltage drop. I can just pick up the Passport and carry it instead of having to wrap everything up, disconnect the cylinder, put a cap on the cylinder and then take it where I need it.”

This convenience really pays off when machines critical to the production process, such as a $500,000 shape cutter, break down. Every minute that machine is down, Tri-City’s entire operation is down.

“For the most part, my job boils down to keeping production going. That’s my number one priority,” Kellogg said. “Everything else I’m doing is put on hold until that machine is running again. In situations like those, it really helps to have the Passport sitting there all ready to weld.”

In a marketplace dominated by ever more efficient and streamlined businesses all vying for the same contracts, no company wants to have to explain that the construction on a building was delayed because a machine at their plant broke down and took longer than necessary to repair.

Kellogg is happy knowing his contribution keeps Tri-City Mechanical at the top of its game.

“If there’s anything I can do to make my job easier, faster and more productive, I’m going to do it,” Kellogg said. “And when it comes to welding, you get what you pay for. If you spend $800, you’ll get something that works OK. But if you invest $1,700 in a Passport, you’re going to get something that makes your life and job much, much easier.”

Ken Stanzel is a product manager, Miller Electric Mfg. Co.
He can be reached at 920-734-9821; Web site: http://www.millerwelds.com/products/mig/millermatic_passport/.

Back to top

Back to Web-exclusive articles archives