A customer recently called us with an interesting opening line: “I think I might need stud welding.” When asked about his current process, it turned out his instinct was exactly right.
He explained that his shop was drilling through half inch plate on every single part, every single day. The process required countless drill bits, cutting fluid, and significant amounts of time, money, and energy. It’s a routine that many manufacturing shops remain locked into, simply because it’s familiar.
The team at Davis Stud Welding invited him to bring a few parts to their facility to explore an alternative approach. When he arrived, the crew set up the machine and welded one stud while he watched.
He stood there with a puzzled expression, clearly processing what he had just witnessed and calculating what it would mean for his operation. After a moment, he said something the team hears surprisingly often: “I had no idea this was even an option.”
What made this particularly striking was that he worked in an industry where knowledge of stud welding would be expected. Yet nobody had ever shown him the technology. He had been drilling, tapping, and bolting through materials because that’s simply how it had always been done in his shop.
Meanwhile, the stud welding process completed the same task in seconds. Clean. Strong. Repeatable.
The Learning Curve
The customer is now producing parts faster than he previously thought possible. He’s still adjusting to some aspects of the new process. Years of working with bolts that go all the way through plate had created an assumption in his mind that this method always meant stronger connections.
However, torque tests tell a different story. When stud welding is executed properly, the stud holds with exceptional strength, and the process eliminates substantial amounts of wasted materials and labor.
A Common Pattern
This story isn’t unique. The team at Davis Stud Welding has encountered many variations of this scenario over the years. They regularly visit fabrication shops where workers are still welding studs by hand, drilling every hole, tapping every thread, and repeating the same labor intensive processes simply because no one informed them that alternatives existed.
This isn’t about resistance to change. It’s about access to information.
Stud welding technology isn’t new, but in many facilities, it remains unknown. Every time someone witnesses the process in action for the first time, the response is remarkably consistent: “I wish I knew about this years ago.”
The Cost of Unknowns
Traditional drilling and tapping processes carry hidden costs that accumulate over time:
• Continuous replacement of drill bits and tooling
• Purchase and disposal of cutting fluids
• Labor hours spent on repetitive manual processes
• Material waste from through bolting
• Slower production cycles
• Increased per part costs
Stud welding addresses each of these pain points with a streamlined approach that reduces both time and material consumption while maintaining structural integrity that meets or exceeds traditional fastening methods.
Why Change Matters
For shops operating on tight margins, even small efficiency gains compound significantly over weeks and months of production. The difference between drilling and welding a single stud might seem minimal, but multiply that across hundreds or thousands of parts, and the impact becomes substantial.
Beyond speed, there’s the quality factor. Properly executed stud welding creates consistent, reliable connections that perform predictably under stress testing. The elimination of holes drilled completely through plate also preserves material integrity in ways that traditional through bolting cannot match.
Ready to See the Difference?
Davis Stud Welding invites shop owners and production managers to explore whether this process makes sense for their specific applications. Even facilities that assume stud welding won’t apply to their work may be surprised by what’s possible with their current parts and materials.
The team is available to demonstrate the technology using actual production pieces, providing real world data rather than theoretical benefits.
Contact Stud Welding today to schedule a demonstration with your parts. Sometimes one weld changes everything.