FLAME BRAZING done well isn’t the result of buying the most expensive equipment.

Often the equipment may be ‘fit for purpose’ – the problem is that the equipment may not be being used to its full potential.

That’s a view expressed by Derek Davies who has trained and written about the Flame Brazing process for over 30 years.

“I always say that the equipment is the last thing to think about, not the first – the first is getting to understand the customer’s process and objectives and then determining what equipment best fit his needs, ” says Derek.

He added: “It might be what I can build and supply, it might be a more automated machine, in which case I will direct them to a machine builder, but the process has to be developed first, the potential customer does not always understand what equipment is available.”

Derek uses a 0-10 complexity scale to help his customers understand the best way forward in improving their Flame Brazing operations.

According to Derek, all flame brazing processes and equipment lies somewhere on the simple complexity scale between  0-10 as follows:

0 – simple manual flame process using a hand held torch
1 – simple bench mounted flames
2-3 simple small shuttle brazing machines.
4-5 more complex small shuttle machines
6-8 more complex rotary or in-line machines
8-10 extremely complex automatic machines

Says Derek: “The customer might already have some flame brazing machine/ equipment and have problems, in which case an option for him is pay for my services to audit his brazing process and get down to the route causes of him brazing issues.”

In this way, Derek can diagnose problems for the client without the client having to re-tool or re-train, saving clients a lot of money and heartache in the process.

“Sometimes the source of the problems quite often are the component, design, fit up or cleanliness,” added Derek.