Q: In brief, what is the history of ESAB?
A: The story of ESAB is the story of welding. When our founder Oscar Kjellberg developed the world’s first coated welding electrode in 1904, he launched a company whose innovation and uncompromising standards have helped create the history of welding itself.

For more than 100 years, ESAB has been powered by the will to continuously seek new and improved ways of serving our customers. This has made ESAB a world leader in welding products and advanced cutting systems.

Q: How has welding technology changed through the years?
A: Equipment manufacturers continue to design more intelligence into welding systems, responding to several industry trends. ESAB’s sMIG, or “smart MIG” technology is a good example. To start welding using the short circuit transfer MIG process, users simply enter the metal thickness and wire diameter and then start welding, then sMIG technology takes care of the rest. Using an exclusive, built-in algorithm, sMIG monitors the operator’s technique and continuously adapts the MIG output to provide a stable arc and superior, repeatable welds. After about three seconds of welding, the operator can actually hear the arc fine tune itself.

For novice welders, sMIG takes away the doubt of welding with incorrect settings and lets them focus on learning good gun manipulation. As a result, they can start producing quality weld in less time. With sMIG, experienced welders become more productive as they quickly move from plate to sheet to tube welding.

Q: What are your thoughts on Industry 4.0, or the fourth Industrial Revolution?
A: The factory of the future links together all of its machine ecosystems. This brings complete transparency to production flows, including order processing, process times and more, so users can see immediately where productivity enhancements are possible. ESAB WeldCloud and ESAB CutCloud are our online data management systems. They use an open-architecture, so they can interlink all of the production data in a business, across all departments. ESAB’s WeldCloud system won the Innovation Award in the “Digital Tools” category at Industrie Lyon 2017, prevailing over 160 innovations presented.

Q: What difficulties have you faced in the American market this past year?
A: The conditions in the oil, gas and petrochemical market greatly affect the welding industry, but even talking about that market makes us think of how Houston and Gulf Coast were affected by Hurricane Harvey, with Hurricanes Irma and Maria following so closely. To support hurricane relief efforts, ESAB has announced that with every shipment of select products between now and December 31, 2017, ESAB will make a contribution to assist the rebuilding efforts. For this initiative, we selected some of our highest volume products, including the ESAB Rebel™, Thermal-Dynamics® Cutmaster 60i and Victor® Journeyman outfits, in the hopes of reaching the donation goal of $250,000 as quickly as possible. Contributions will go to Operation USA, a 100-percent privately funded agency that has delivered more than $400 million in aid for relief and development projects since 1979.

Q: What successes has your company had since last year?
A: After previewing the Sentinel™ A50 auto-darkening helmet at FABTECH 2016, we officially launched it in February. The industry’s response has been more positive than we ever expected. There are a lot of differentiating features, but many operators cite the sharp, clear and consistent view of the weld puddle. Sentinel offers what we call true color technology, which enables operators to obtain a better view of the weld puddle and surrounding area so that they keep the weld puddle centered in the joint.

Q: What do you want to see in the future for the industry?
A: The entire skilled trade industry knows it needs to focus on creating, educating and supporting the next generation of skilled workers. We hope to see more out-of-the-box collaborations such as the Paley-James Project, which brought together two high-profile artists in Albert Paley and Jesse James, with backing from ESAB and the five co-sponsors of the FABTECH show (AWS, CCAI, FMA, PMA and SME). To raise the visibility of this project and spread the news about other education-related efforts, we created the MetalMentors.com website.