Victorian welding technology most significant since robot
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3 March 2009
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New welding technology developed in Melbourne’s outskirts will help manufacturers improve productivity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, representing the most significant productivity gain in the field since the introduction of the modern welding robot in the 1980s.
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Victorian company Frontline Australasia, is already using the new welding tip in its component production process for clients in the aircraft, automotive and defence and environmental industries and recording productivity gains of 27 per cent, with successful trials also undertaken in the USA and Europe.
The product, developed by Victorian company MIGfast Pty Ltd, is a three centimetre long tip that can weld 50 per cent faster and last twice as long as current tips, using 30 per cent less energy and generating about 25 per cent less CO2.
It also uses less welding material, saving hundreds of metres of wire per robot per day.
The new welding tip could be used for robotic MIG (Metal Inert Gas) and Gas Metal Arc welding used in the automotive, whitegoods, defence and metal fabrication industries.
Victorian Energy and Resources Minister Peter Batchelor said the new technology was set to provide huge improvements for industry and the environment, both here and overseas, with export opportunities currently being explored.
“If these welding tips were used by all MIG welding robots globally, it would save about 700,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year and more than 70,000 tonnes of welding wire,” he said.
Mr Batchelor said the Centre for Energy and Greenhouse Technologies (CEGT), a Victorian Government initiative to develop and demonstrate new sustainable energy and greenhouse gas reduction technologies, had invested in and provided support for MIGfast Pty Ltd to develop and manufacture the energy-saving tips.
“The welding tips are a great example of how collaborative work by government, industry and research partners can result in an easy to implement product which will benefit local manufacturers in striving to maintain globally competitive quality and costs, and can be exported to the world,” he said.
Initial research and development of the technology was undertaken by the CSIRO and the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Welded Structures.
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