case study
Athena Manufacturing: 70% Faster Welds with Hirebotics Cobot Welder
Precision production. Tight tolerances. Shorter lead times. When precision is non-negotiable, Athena delivers.
Athena Manufacturing is known for handling the kind of work most shops won’t touch – complex metal assemblies for industries like aerospace, semiconductors, oil and gas, and defense. Based in Austin, Texas, with more than 250 employees, their reputation is built on precision, reliability, and the ability to deliver under pressure.
But when labor shortages threatened throughput, the team needed a way to keep quality high – without slowing down production.
Results at a glance:
- 4 Beacon welding cobots running daily
- 4x faster part completion
- 70% production increase
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“Hiring experienced welders fast enough just wasn’t happening. And we don’t have the luxury of compromising on quality or repeatability.”
Kyle Naylor
AWS CWI / Weld Supervisor, Athena Manufacturing
The Challenge
Too Much Work, Not Enough Welders
Athena faced a familiar problem: demand was up, but skilled labor wasn’t. With increasingly complex projects and tight tolerances, the team had to turn down work they knew they could deliver – if they only had the capacity.
And traditional welding automation wasn’t a fit. The setup time, programming complexity, and operator training made it too slow – and too rigid – for Athena’s fast-moving production environment.
The Solution
Scalable Welding With Smart Automation
Hirebotics delivered a different approach.
Athena brought in four Beacon-powered Cobot Welders across their facility:
- Two cobots on a large Siegmund table with interchangeable fixtures for big, complex components
- One system dedicated to high-volume production on a smaller table
- Another mounted on a custom turntable setup for rotational weld access
All of them ran on Beacon OS, giving Athena’s team a unified platform to program, monitor, and support welding operations from anywhere.
“We didn’t need highly experienced programmers. We trained new operators – even ones with no welding background – to run the cobots quickly. That was a game changer.”
– Kyle Naylor
The IMPACT
Consistent and accurate welds, at 4x the speed
With Beacon, Athena slashed weld times on key assemblies from 8 hours to just 2. That’s 70% faster production times, without compromising on accuracy or quality.
Even for large parts with hundreds of weld points, setup and programming took less than a day – compared to weeks with traditional robots.
“Our parts have strict tolerances. The cobots hit them, every time. And the consistency across every part? That’s something we never got from manual welding or older automation.”
– Kyle Naylor
Beyond the gains in productivity, the investment helped reshape how Athena attracts and empowers talent. Operators were excited to work with technology that made their jobs easier – not obsolete.
“Beacon helped us grow without cutting manual welding. In fact, we’ve expanded that team too. The cobots just let us scale the right way.”
– Kyle Naylor
And thanks to Beacon’s intuitive interface and real-time insights, Athena can now adapt production faster and deliver with more confidence – on any job, at any scale.
The Takeaway
“When you invest in technology, you invest in your people. With Beacon, we’ve gained capacity, flexibility, and the ability to train the next generation of operators.”
– Kyle Naylor
By integrating Hirebotics into their workflow, Athena Manufacturing didn’t just automate – it accelerated. Faster turnaround. Higher consistency. Greater control.
And more wins for their business.
