WELD-IT software estimates fabrication costs

Welding engineers play a vital role in any manufacturing environment, providing support to design teams by selecting and costing welding and associated processes such as manipulation.

However, because many small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Europe cannot afford the luxury of in-house welding engineers, they have to rely on internal ’estimators’, who may not have the required welding expertise, or outsource the role to third parties.

But now, thanks to European Union funding, a software-based welding tool is currently under development that could change all this. Called WELD-IT, the system will offer smaller welding and fabrication companies a means to reliably and automatically select and cost welding operations used to construct steel assemblies.

The software is being developed by a consortium of companies led by the MFKK Invention and Research Centre in Budapest, Hungary. Joining them in the project are welding experts from TWI, based in Cambridge, UK, and Slovakia-based First Welding Company, who will work alongside developers at Bulgarian software company Nemetschek, design and CAD experts at Infotron in Turkey and materials handling and welding specialists at Sudotim in Romania and GI-Flex in Hungary.