TPT November 2015

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Technology News
62 November 2015
UAE-based ASIC acquires
30 per cent stake in Australian
welding disrupter K-TIG
UNITED Arab Emirates-based
Advanced Science & Innovation
Company (ASIC) has consolidated its
strong position in early-stage advanced
manufacturing technology investment
by acquiring a 30 per cent stake in
Australian welding innovator Keyhole
TIG Limited (K-TIG),
Winner of the 2014 Australian
Industrial Product of the Year and
the 2015 Defence Industry Innovator
Award, K-TIG has developed an ultra-
high-speed, full penetration welding
technology that welds up to 100 times
faster than conventional welding in
materials up to 16mm in thickness – in
one pass.
K-TIG’s Keyhole TIG welding
technology eliminates the need for wire,
edge preparation and skilled operators
while requiring just a fraction of the gas
andpower neededbymanyotherwelding
processes. In recent years, K-TIG has
developed an international distribution
network, which spans Europe, Asia and
the Middle East, with the US market
next in its sights. K-TIG’s disruptive
technology is the result of ten years of
research and four years of product trials
in six countries. K-TIG serves a wide
range of industry sectors involved in
precision fabrication including oil and
gas, defence, aerospace, pressure
and suction vessels, cryogenics, heat
exchange, desalination, pipe making
and minerals processing.
The K-TIG welding process produces
results across a wide range of exotic
and conventional materials, and excels
in medium to heavy gauge metals. It is
a low distortion process that is tolerant
to imperfections and creates a highly
stable, self-correcting full-penetration
weld across a wide spectrum of
specialist metals.
K-TIG CEO Neil Le Quesne claims
Keyhole TIG welding offers the
most substantial change in welding
technology in the past 50 years. “In just
two years, K-TIG has managed to turn
the way we think about welding on its
head,” he said.
“This technology places a tool in the
hands of fabricators which routinely
reduces the time, gas and power
required to weld steels and exotic
materials by more than
90 per cent. We expect
that the adoption of the
K-TIG process will expand
exponentially over the
coming years as industry
begins to leverage its full
potential.”
The Advanced Science
& Innovation Company
(ASIC) expects the global
oil and gas industry, plus
a wide range of other
f ab r i ca t i on - dependen t
industries, to embrace
K-TIG’s technology.
ASIC general manager
Filip Matwin said K-TIG’s
proprietary process was
already delivering order-
of-magnitude productivity
gains to the global
fabrication sector.
“Global 500 companies
are achieving order-of-
magnitude cost savings
by simply replacing their conventional
welding system with K-TIG,” he
said. “The productivity gains and
cost reductions being experienced by
these companies is extraordinary, with
payback on the technology achieved in
months rather than years. We expect
this to be a highly disruptive technology,
and we are delighted to be a part of the
company’s development.”
Since K-TIG began from a foundation
of pure R&D, it has developed into a
commercialisation-centric company that
has transformed the complex physics,
which underpins the process, into a
push-button operation. At the same time,
K-TIG is again investing heavily in R&D
and it anticipates bringing to market
successive generations of its technology,
together with specialist product offerings
for specific target markets. The United
Arab Emirates-basedAdvanced Science
& Innovation Company invests globally
in transformative new technologies in
advanced manufacturing, renewable
energy and bio sciences.
ASIC acts as a commercialisation
vehicle for a number of innovative
science and technology projects and
products, and also as Project Manager
and Consultant throughout the GCC,
Africa, China and beyond.
K-TIG – Australia
Website:
ASIC has acquired a share in K-TIG