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Tested, certified sanitary TIG work on 304 and 316L stainless product lines: dairy pipelines and bulk tanks, brewhouse and cellar fittings, winery tank work, distillery lines and food-grade equipment. Based in Monmouth, mobile across the Willamette Valley.
Inside a product line, the weld is a surface your milk, wort, wine or spirit touches on every run. Any pit, skip, crevice or oxidized root is a pocket where residue sits and bacteria grow through a clean-in-place cycle. On a Grade A dairy, the inspector who finds one can fail the line, and the tank it fed gets dumped. Some dairies in this valley run 10,000-gallon bulk tanks. In a brewery or winery the same flaw shows up as an infection you cannot trace and a batch you cannot sell.
That is why sanitary welding is tested separately, why few welders ever take the test, and why the ones who pass it charge for the extra care it takes. Caleb has done this work on working dairies and a distillery, and the dairy inspectors in this part of the valley know his work.
“If there is anything in that weld, an inspector on a dairy or a brewery will fail it and you redo it. It has to be perfect.”
Caleb Erickson, owner/filters:strip_exif()/filters:no_upscale()/media/8c034456-1cec-4ba8-b1ff-17452f80e0f6.jpeg)
The acceptance criteria for a field-welded product line come down to three things: the joint is sound, it is smooth enough to clean, and the line drains. These are the flaws that break those rules, and what we do about each one.
Most of this work is dairies and the beverage side of the Willamette Valley. If your plant has a sanitary line, a tank or a piece of stainless equipment that an inspector or a brewer will judge, it belongs here.
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Parlor and milk-room pipelines, receivers, bulk tank fittings, wash and CIP lines, and the repairs that come up between inspections. Built so the state inspector can scope it and move on.
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Brewhouse and cellar piping, hard-piped transfer lines, Tri-Clamp manifolds, fermenter and brite tank ports, heat exchanger connections and CIP loops. Purged and finished so the inside of the line is as clean as the outside.
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Tank fittings and valves, racking and transfer lines, crush pad and press piping, and replacing the fitting that cracked the week before harvest.
Still and condenser connections, spirit and low-wines transfer lines, Tri-Clamp valve assemblies and custom stainless pieces. Caleb already keeps one Oregon distillery running.
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Bulk tanks, vessels, stainless prep and serving equipment, steam tables and the one-off stainless pieces a processor or commercial kitchen needs repaired or built.
Not sanitary, still stainless or steel? Gates, trailers, farm repair and structural work run through the main shop.
Metal fabricationSanitary work takes longer per joint than general fabrication, and it should. Here is where that time goes.
On site or from your photos. What is failing, what the inspector flagged, what alloy and tube size you run, and how much downtime you can afford. Milking schedules and brew days set the plan.
Matching 304 or 316L tube and Tri-Clamp fittings. Ends cut square, deburred, aligned flush and pitched to drain. Stainless-only tooling from the first cut.
Argon back-purge on every product-contact joint, then full-penetration TIG at low heat so the root stays bright and the tint stays light.
Every joint checked. Representative welds left unpolished for the borescope, and Caleb is available to walk your inspector through the work.
Caleb has a working relationship with the dairy inspectors in this part of the valley and has walked several of them through what a passing sanitary weld looks like. If your inspector has a question about a joint, he will take the call. It is better for everybody when the welder and the inspector are looking for the same thing.
Dairy pipelines, Tri-Clamp assemblies and tank work from around the valley. Most of it is photographed before polishing, because that is the state the inspector sees it in.
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More welding and fabrication work, sanitary and otherwise, is in the project galleries.
Punctual. Efficient. Knowledgeable. Caleb does quality work. If I need TIG work again, and I probably will, I will definitely be calling him back.
Professional and efficient. Great quality at a great price. Same day service. Would highly recommend.
Caleb is a professional welder and fabricator. I hired him for a big job for our business. He delivered, and stuck with it till it was done, which proved to be a late night. Now how many people would do that? His pricing is most fair.
Reviews are from Google and are quoted as written, trimmed for length.
If yours is not here, text a photo of the joint or the fitting and ask.
Ask about a jobWelding stainless steel that food, milk or beverage will touch, to a standard where the inside of the joint is as smooth and clean as the tube around it. That means argon back-purging, full penetration, controlled heat so the metal does not discolor, no pits or crevices, and lines that drain. It is governed by 3-A Sanitary Standards and AWS D18.1 and checked by dairy and food inspectors, usually with a borescope.
Yes. Sanitary welding has its own test, separate from structural or pipe certifications, and Caleb has taken and passed it. Certification paperwork comes with the quote on request.
Yes. Most sanitary work is mobile: parlors, milk rooms, brewhouses, cellars and tank rooms across the Willamette Valley. Spools, manifolds and tank work that can travel are built in the Monmouth shop.
It is built to the same criteria the inspector uses: 3-A Accepted Practice 605 and AWS D18.1. Welds are left unpolished so representative joints can be scoped, and if your inspector flags anything we rework it. Caleb will also talk directly with the inspector if that helps.
Call. After-hours and emergency calls are available at an after-hours rate, and a dairy that cannot ship milk is exactly what that is for.
More prep, argon purge gas on every joint, dedicated stainless-only tooling, and more time per weld. A sanitary joint takes longer than a structural one because the inside has to be perfect, not just the outside. The rate reflects that, and it is still far cheaper than a dumped tank or a lost batch.
304 and 316L sanitary tube and Tri-Clamp fittings, matched to what is already in your plant. 316L where acid, salt or chlorides are involved. If you are not sure what you have, send a photo of a fitting and the stamp on it.
Yes. Gates, railings, trailers, farm equipment and structural repair run through the main shop. See metal fabrication and repair and maintenance.
Dairies, breweries, wineries and distilleries from McMinnville down to Lebanon, and farther for the right job. If your plant is outside this list, call and ask.
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Send a photo of the joint, the tank or the drawing. You will hear back from Caleb, not a call center, with a straight answer on whether it is a sanitary job and what it takes.
Text works best. Caleb is usually under a hood. Veteran owned, Monmouth, Oregon.