When Precision Is Non-Negotiable

This emergency vehicle service provider deploys firefighting and rescue situations every day. Quality is non-negotiable. Every component must be precisely tooled, every weld precisely placed. This precision demands unique versatility, comfort and effectiveness from the welding operation.

When your company is responsible for rebuilding, repairing and up-fitting vehicles that deploy to firefighting and rescue situations day in and day out, quality is non-negotiable. Every component must be precisely tooled, every weld precisely placed.

The employees at True North Emergency Equipment (Hillsboro, OR) can certainly attest to that fact. They are a premier service provider for custom fire engines, water tenders, and rescue and emergency vehicles used across the United States, and especially in the Northwest.

“Our people understand and believe that our vehicles need to be serviced to complete their mission. They are lifesaving vehicles,” explains Russ Sheldon, the operations manager at True North Emergency Equipment. “We don’t just inspect quality into our products. It has to be built in there.”

That philosophy spans every aspect of this company. According to Sheldon, almost every vehicle the company works on is unique, which means it requires the right equipment to work on it – regardless if the job is rebuilt, repaired or upfitted.

True North Emergency Equipment recently added new MIG welding guns and consumables from Bernard (Beecher, IL) to their welding operation. They found that the Bernard units didn’t just stand up to the tough demands of their applications, but that the MIG guns also proved more versatile and comfortable for the welding operators.

Plus, the consumables helped reduce their inventory and costs. Not surprisingly, these are benefits that the fabricators and management alike welcomed.

NEW GUNS OFFER GREATER VERSATILITY AND COMFORT
In a typical day at True North Emergency Equipment, there are no typical applications. The company could be welding 1/8 in thick sheet metal compartments or working on 1/2 in steel mounting brackets. Most days, fabricators also tackle the nuances of aluminum welding for good measure.

Adding to the challenge of welding multiple materials, these same fabricators also find themselves working at awkward angles on a regular basis. According to Sheldon, “Fabricators here weld overhead, vertical and horizontal, and a lot of the components we fixture. So to say we have a standard welding position or a set position . . . no, that would not be the norm here.”

Despite those challenges, the welds have to look, in Sheldon’s words, “sharp.” He adds, “Anything exposed has to look top notch. The care in the detail basically has our fabricators’ artistic signature on it.”

Kyle Plock, a True North Emergency Equipment fabricator, has noticed that the company’s new 400 amp Q-Gun Series MIG guns help make that quality easier to achieve — even on out-of-position welds.