Rob has been welding for seventeen years. He started in steel, then moved into stainless steel machine building, and has now worked at Titan in equipment fabrication for a year and a half. “I wanted to take on bigger jobs, do more X-ray-grade welding, and work with different types of material,” he says. “That was new to me.”
He got that chance right away. Alongside Frans, who has been in the trade for more than forty years, he stepped into a titanium project. Titanium is precise work, Rob says: it has to be clean, properly degreased, and no oxygen can get in. Otherwise, it shows immediately.
Frans has built up plenty of experience over his forty years in equipment fabrication. His first introduction to titanium came at age 23. He ended up at Titan because he knew owner Robert van Voorst: the company was close by, and the specific materials appealed to him. Within Titan, he trains apprentices and colleagues, performs fit-up checks, and inspects weld edges before welding can begin. In the end, he’s the one who signs off on the next step.
Rob and Frans both say the same thing: standing still isn’t an option. New materials, new methods, that’s what makes an organization grow. At Titan, we don’t design and build individual pipe sections. We build complete installations. The combination of different materials, process technology, knowledge sharing, and scale is what sets the work apart. It only works if everyone’s on board, from the drawing table to the shop floor.
Finding and training good people matters just as much. “You explain something to an apprentice, and then you hear: ‘I’ve never even heard of that!'”
Frans knows experience isn’t built in a few months. Before someone is truly an all-around welder, five to ten years have gone by. Not all the work at Titan is heavy or complex: there are also thin-walled projects from three to ten millimeters. There’s plenty of challenge in that too, but it’s a more accessible place to start. That range means everyone has room to grow, and the work stays varied.
Frans and Rob agree: a certain mindset comes with working at Titan.
You have to want to learn, roll up your sleeves, and set the bar high. “You have to want to do it perfectly. If you don’t, it shows right away.”
Those who want to learn get the chance here. Those who take it make the difference.
