Skip to main content

The role of an industrial boilermaking company

Industrial boilermaking, and with it the boilermaker, are rare pearls sought by many companies. This specific, highly prized skill has evolved considerably over the past few decades and continues to do so. From technical advances to technological innovations, the art of boilermaking has become a pillar of performance. Yet it remains nebulous in the common mind. What is boilermaking (def. and industrial practices)? What are the differences with ironwork or welding? What role does an industrial boilermaking company play in our economy? To find out everything about this cutting-edge profession, here is an update on the situation.

Boilermaking, the definition :

The work of metal has always conditioned a number of developments in different civilizations, and for all that, it retains a part of mystery and a certain ignorance of the general public. Well beyond the iconic cauldron of the druid Getafix, the boilermaker is capable of much, with a vast array of achievements to his credit. To understand boilermaking, what is its definition?

To present it simply, it consists in using the raw material that is the metal in order to shape it into the appropriate form for its future destination. The boilermaker will make a single piece or several pieces and assemble them together. It can be an element that will integrate an assembly and allow it to function, for example a form part on an agricultural machine. It can also provide a finished, ready-to-use product. Before he has transformed his material into an object, he receives the metal in the form of sheet metal, tubes or bars.

What is the difference between boilermaking and ironwork?

Metalworking refers to several professions, not always easy to differentiate. It is quite common, for example, not to distinguish clearly between boilermaking, welding and ironwork. Industrial boilermaking and ironwork are part of the same large family of metalwork, each with its own specificities.

What is ironwork?

The ironworker, often referred to as a wrought iron worker, works on hot metal. He favors works on iron, wrought iron. However, he also shapes steel, cast iron and lead. He is able to create a number of ornamental elements specific to the building, such as pergolas, gazebos, awnings, balconies, portals, art objects, statues.

What is boilermaking? Def. and main principles

The work of the boilermaker takes place without forging and on thin or medium thickness sheets. He produces primary elements or creates boiler-made assemblies for a wide variety of sectors of activity. He is able to work indifferently on steel, aluminum, copper, stainless steel or brass. Today, he readily uses computers in the design phase, particularly in the context of 3D simulations.

What is welding?

Welding is the last step in the process after the components are manufactured. It is therefore an integral part of the industrial boilermaking profession. It consists in assembling the different elements, maintaining a continuity of quality for each of them. There are different techniques, adapted according to the nature of the metal and the objective. It takes many years of practice in welding before you can achieve a high level of expertise.

Industrial boilermaking, crucial for many manufacturing processes

The industrial boilermaking profession may not be very well known to the general public, but it is nonetheless an essential part of modern life. To be convinced of this, it is enough to observe, even if only on the scale of a house, the most common installations: household appliances, boiler tanks, tools, lawnmowers, elevators are the most familiar examples that have involved a boilermaker in their manufacture. Boilermaking is therefore defined here as a shadow profession, which has become almost invisible as it is instilled in most of what surrounds us.

Company directors and production line managers know how crucial it is to find an industrial boilermaking company. Indeed, the ability of the latter to meet the most demanding requirements often determines the manufacturing performance. The development of a project can also depend on it. It is expected to provide in a timely manner metal equipment regularly designed to measure, and without any negotiation on the quality of realization.

What does boilermaking bring? Why is it an essential partner for companies? Precision, adaptability and reliability could sum up the role it plays in the production circuits of many sectors.

An unavoidable presence of industrial boilermaking in many branches of activity

The boilermaker practices a key profession, often essential to achieve the finished product. A large number of sectors of activity call upon its skills on a daily basis to design and produce both metal elements and ready-to-use equipment. These are sometimes sophisticated missions, which therefore require real expertise and a lot of know-how. Almost no sector of the industry can do without him. The companies of industrial boilermaking are at the service of the most strategic branches:

Aeronautics and aerospace

For the shaping and assembly of the structure of aircraft or rockets, fuselage, landing gear, wing, engine nacelle, control surfaces.

Land, car and rail transport

By making the bodies, chassis or even the nose of a TGV

The shipbuilding industry

Industrial boilermaking is used on cargo ships, cruise ships and warships.

The building industry

By producing site parts.

The chemical industry

For example, for equipment used in the manufacture of chemicals (such as reactors, storage tanks, agitators, mixers, mills), as well as piping used to transport liquid products.

The energy and petrochemicals sector

Turbines, pipes, nozzles, reactor vessels and boilers are essential for the production of nuclear, hydroelectric and thermal energy. Industrial boilermaking also produces the elements that contribute to the extraction and transformation of oil.

The agri-food industry

Boilermaking skills are needed at several levels, whether for the shaped parts that enable the production lines to be set up (cutting, packaging, sizing, crushing) or for equipment such as cold rooms, storage tanks, ovens, silos, mixers, etc.

Furnishings and professional equipment

When it comes to furniture or professional equipment, what does boilermaking produce? The range of realizations is of a great variety, between the furnishing or the storefronts, the staircases and footbridges, the doors, portals and gates.

The profession of industrial boilermaker in the era of advanced technologies

In the age of Industry 4.0, industrial boilermaking has know-how that all manufacturers pay attention to. It is fully recognized for its ability to promote innovative projects, to respond in a reactive and customized manner to the expectations of companies, from design, manufacturing and assembly to operator training.

Augmentation de la productivité
Soudeur

An art of shaping metal at the service of companies

It is definitely far away, the emblematic cauldron of the profession! What has changed in boilermaking from ancient practices to today’s much sought after expertise?

By being able to produce wind turbine masts or to manage complex projects including computer-controlled machines, boilermaking sets new rules of the game. It is now positioned at the heart of the various digital and energy transitions. It has become a leading-edge discipline that can effectively support the performance of companies in all sectors.

Expertise coupled with specific qualities

A thorough knowledge of metals, a lot of thought and a love of meticulous work are the foundations for being a good boilermaker. What is boilermaking of the 21st century, if not an important ability to use innovative technologies, to adapt its designs and manufacturing processes to provide not only compliant parts, but also productive solutions.

This is a physically and humanly demanding specialty. The boilermaker must show a great faculty of precision. He decodes plans, analyzes a technical file, deploys an acute sense of spatial representation. He knows how to respond to each configuration with equal rigor, anchored in the reality of the end use. It is, for boilermaking, the very definition of a job of passion and challenge.

Programmateur