Wire fed up to 30m away from wire feeder

The ability of wire feeders to feed welding wire up to 30m gave a fabricator good all-round access when welding three tubular structures for the UK's 2004 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The entrance to the 2004 Goodwood Festival of Speed was dominated by three structures representing speed built by Littlehampton Welding Ltd in West Sussex with the help of Kemppi welding equipment.

Kemppi (UK) Ltd, a subsidiary of Kemppi OY, Finland and one of the largest welding equipment manufacturers in Europe has supplied Littlehampton Welding with a variety of both MIG and TIG welding machines through their dealer Rapid Welding Supplies of Cosham, Hampshire for near on 10 years.

Littlehampton Welding was established in 1983 and is today a leading Architectural and Structural metalworking and fabrication company that receives its commissions mainly by reputation and recommendation.

The commission to build three tubular structures, designed to support Malcolm Campbell's 1935 Campbell-Railton- Rolls Royce Bluebird car and a replica of Donald, his son's Bluebird K7 record breaking boat together with R.R.

Michael's Supermarine S6 seaplane, forerunner of the WW2 Supermarine Spitfire representing speed on land, water and in the air to be positioned in front of Goodwood House over the weekend of 25th, 26th and 27th June 2004 was given by the Paddington based sculptor Gerry Judah.

Gerry, who was born in India has designed the spectacular entrances to the Goodwood Festival of Speed since it began.

He is one of the UK's most creative sculptors designing three dimensional creations that make a visual impression.

This includes sculptural and architectural installations as well as small scale structures.

The illuminated Linkbridge at Woolwich Dockyard in London is an example of his unique work and his client list is impressive including Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, the Royal Ballet and Amnesty International.

Littlehampton received the order to fabricate, paint and erect the three structures in January.

Each structure was built using Grade 50 structural tubing in diameters up to 219mm and in various thicknesses ranging from 5 - 12mm.

They each weighed 10,5 tonnes and had wings at the top which were covered in a white PVC fabric stretched over each completed structure.

Each was different in size; the smallest was 70ft high with a wing span of 100ft, whilst the tallest was 110ft high with a wingspan of 70ft.

The Kemppi equipment used on building the structures was a Kemppi PRO4000 with PROMIG 500 wire feeder and a PROMIG 100 sub wire feeders which gave Littlehampton Welding the facility of distance feeding up to 30m.

from the PROMIG 500 wire feeder, allowing them good all round welding access to the structures within their workshops.

The PROMIG 500 wire feed units can be supplied with the option of interchangeable control panels which allow different welding characteristics for the user to choose from.

Other equipment used by the company includes Kempoweld, Kempomat as well as the latest Mastertig DC and AC/DC welding systems.

As well as fabricating large tubular bridge structures and general structural steel work, the Company is involved in fabricating artistic commissions including the latest project a pair of highly polished fish using stainless steel bar and mesh for an international hotel group in the Camen Islands.

Bill Tustin, Managing Director at Littlehampton Welding said: "We have used Kemppi equipment for a number of years, which we have purchased through their South Coast dealer Rapid Welding Supplies, who are just along the road from us in Cosham and they give us a very efficient service.

If we have any problems their representative Andrew Doe is only a phone call away.

Our welders find the equipment easy to use and it has always been very reliable.

All our welders are coded, so it is imperative that they are comfortable with the equipment and Kemppi certainly meets their requirements.".

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