Leading gases and engineering company BOC Australia has launched the GMA and TIG arc projectors in Australia.

The arc projectors are state-of-the-art training and demonstration tools that display the effect on the welding arc when different shielding gases are used, helping end-users select the right product and enabling significant improvements in efficiencies, productivity and quality.

BOC’s Marketing Manager for Welding and Industrial Gases, Kyle Scott explains that the arc projectors have been developed in collaboration with the Linde Group in response to customer demand for specialised solutions to keep pace with growing requirements in the field of welding.

Launched in conjunction with a speciality range of new shielding gas products from BOC, the GMA and TIG arc projectors will help manufacturers optimise results and cut costs by improving product transparency.

BOC identified that advances made in equipment and materials science, new measuring technologies and simulation techniques required state-of-the-art, innovative gas products. BOC’s new arc projectors and high quality shielding gases have responded to a market need for customised solutions, sometimes even at a molecular level when working with expensive, specialised materials.

Shielding gas demonstrations that show the effect of different welding gases on welding properties have had a limited reach because only a few trainees or potential customers could watch the arc at the same time, making training and demonstrations to more than three people impossible.

BOC South Pacific joined forces with German research and development counterparts from the Linde Group to pioneer the GMA and TIG arc projector system in Australia. The new arc projectors are designed to project the welding arc onto a screen enabling training and demonstrations to larger audiences.

The new GMA and TIG arc projectors offer several benefits to users. In addition to highlighting the effect on the welding arc when different gases are used, the projectors also provide an interactive display, which allows the customer/trainee to control the shielding gas used and see the impact on the arc type (GMA), travel speed and surface appearance, thus helping them determine the right welding gas for their application.  

According to Mr Scott, the arc projector is successfully demonstrating how the use of the right BOC shielding gas can deliver savings of more than $3 per metre of weld by keeping traditional cost drivers such as labour and welding wire lower depending upon the specific application.

Apart from reducing production costs, the arc projector also helps the user pinpoint the correct welding gas, enabling positive influences in surface appearance, welding speed, metallurgy and mechanical properties, weld geometry, arc stability, metal transfer and shielding effect.

Another successful outcome of the arc projectors has been the shift in thinking on shielding gases, which were once regarded as a consumable commodity in the welding industry but are now seen as an optimisation tool for serious welders.