Breakthrough Australian welding innovator K-TIG Ltd has secured the first two international sales of its game-changing welding solution, which can weld thick gauge materials in minutes instead of hours.

Worth more than $250,000, these first export sales are to the UK and the Middle East where K-TIG’s recently appointed distributors, WB Alloys in England, and Dubai-based PCT, will demonstrate the time, cost and energy saving benefits of Keyhole TIG welding. WB Alloys will also market K-TIG in Germany.

K-TIG has also achieved success in the WA market. After several years commercialising its technology, K-TIG is now launching its pioneering Keyhole TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) solution into international markets for industrial welding. The value of the welding equipment market is expected to exceed $13 billion by 2015.

Adelaide-based K-TIG is an Australian company with a world-leading, patent-protected welding technology that enables thick gauge materials, including traditionally difficult metals such as stainless steel and titanium, to be welded in one-tenth of the time possible with standard welding processes.

Originally developed by the CSIRO and now wholly owned by Keyhole TIG Limited, the K-TIG welding process is already used by major organisations including the shipbuilding division of Samsung Heavy Industries. K-TIG is listed on the Australian Small Scale Offerings Board (ASSOB).

K-TIG General Manager, International Development, Neil Le Quesne, said these first sales were just “a toe in the water”. “K-TIG's technology is transformational,” he said. “The lightning speed of the welding process and, in many cases, a 95 per cent reduction in power and gas consumption dramatically reduces both the cost and carbon footprint of industrial welding." 

K-TIG’s inaugural exports coincided with a recent visit to the company’s Salisbury head office by Federal Minister for Small Business Brendan O’Connor, who was especially interested in the benefits to Australia of K-TIG’s breakthrough welding technology. 

Organised by the Salisbury Business Enterprise Centre (BEC), the Minister’s visit also included Salisbury Mayor Gillian Aldridge, City of Salisbury CEO John Harry, MP for Makin Tony Zappia and Rob Chisholm, a Business Advisor with the Salisbury Business & Export Centre.

K-TIG founder and R&D Manager Laurie Jarvis said the Minister had pressed the button to get the K-TIG welding demonstration started. “We welded a 10-inch Sched 40 stainless steel pipe,” he said.

“During the demonstration, we showed the Minister how we could complete the entire weld in about three minutes whereas traditional TIG welding would have taken six hours to do it! For industries that need to weld thick gauge materials such as carbon steel, stainless steel and titanium, K-TIG welding offers enormous savings by eliminating the cost of that six hours’ worth of materials, energy and labour.”

As well as offering huge benefits to industry through time saving, reduced energy costs and lower reliance upon highly skilled labour, the K-TIG welding solution includes the ability to automatically record and store data about each weld on a remote computer server for audit and control purposes. This precise quality control is vital to the oil and gas industries and to the defence sector where every element of construction needs to be profiled and precisely audited. 

For more about K-TIG, visit www.k-tig.com  

For media assistance, call John Harris at Impress Media Australia on (08) 8431 4000 or email john@impress.com.au