K-TIG's high-tech welding at Adelaide plant attracting interest in South Korea, UK and United States
K-TIG Limited has commercialised CSIRO technology to weld materials faster and stronger than traditionally, hoping to work with companies such as South Korean company Hanwha Defence, makers of the k9 self-propelled howitzer.
Images courtesy K-TIG and Hanwa Defence
Adelaide manufacturer of high-tech welding equipment, Mile End-based K-TIG Limited, continued to increase its global ambitions in 2022.
The listed company in 2022 signed a formal agreement with the United Kingdom’s nuclear advanced manufacturing research centre to develop a turnkey robotic welding cell to produce nuclear storage containers, each holding three cubic metres of intermediate-level waste. Up to 17,000 stainless-steel containers were needed to decommission the Sellafield nuclear site in the United Kingdom as part of a $3 billion procurement plan.
K-TIG signed with major Korean company Hanwha Defence Group and Hanwha Defence Australia, to develop advanced keyhole welding procedures for making armoury. Hanwha is South Korea’s largest defence company and also operates in aerospace, fintech, mining and clean energy. It was the preferred supplier for the Australian Army’s Land 8116 self-propelled artillery project and shortlisted for the Land400 Phase 3 Infantry Fighting Vehicle project.
Previously focused on the pipe, tank and pressure vessel industries, K-TIG had a system that could perform a traditional six-hour weld in less than four minutes to a quality standard and, unlike traditional welding, it required no edged preparation or filler materials. Mile End-based K-TIG Limited commercialised CSIRO (commonwealth science industrial research organisation) technology to weld materials faster and stronger than traditionally.
K-TIG used a 24-week joint project with Hanwa to demonstrate the K-TIG technology in Adelaide on the specific prove the “superior hardness characteristics” of its welding. If that proved successful, Hanwa would look at incorporating it into its global operations, including the bids to build the 8116 and Land400 vehicles.
In 2020, K-TIG also established a North American sales and distribution network that was beginning to pay dividends, and it set up a formal research and development group in Adelaide.
In 2022, K-TIG announced in would build a research and devlopment centre within BAE Systems Australia’s Factory of the Future at Adelaide's Tonsley Innovation District. The centre would evolve its robotic welding capabilities for an array of industrial applications including shipbuilding.
K-TIG managing director Adrian Smith said the company’s technology made welding stronger, faster and more cost-effective with welds that traditional took hours done in less than four minutes and to a higher standard: “We can capture and push data out across every single weld creating a digital footprint across a ship. This makes for high-level repeatability and consistency which means ships are built faster and cheaper.”