African Fusion talks to Renttech’s seasoned product manager, Johan Bester, about the latest additions to the company’s UNIARC range of welding equipment, renowned for being ideal in harsh site conditions and for meeting the reliability demands of the African rental industry.
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The NOMAD 300S (left) is a 300 A single arc, Kuboto engine driven welding system, while the NOMAD 400DUAL (right), with the same engine, is a 400 A dual arc system that can be used by two welders welding simultaneously.
As well as having recently adopted two new premium brands – the Kemppi Brand of advanced welding machines and the voestAlpine Böhler Welding consumables range – Renttech is also continuing to expand its range of UNIARC welding equipment, which has long been the mainstay of its rental and sales offering, most notably for onsite as well as factory use.
“We are on a mission to become the leading high-quality equipment supplier for engineering, welding, and fabrication companies across the country,” says Johan Bester. “Each of our industrial sectors has its own unique welding equipment requirements, but all have an underlying focus on quality, performance and cost of ownership.
“UNIARC, part of the Renttech welding offering, has proven itself over the past 20 years as good value for money equipment that gets the job done, even in the most challenging conditions. As testament to this, UNIARC equipment can be found in most workshops in South Africa as well as on most construction or maintenance sites around the country, Bester continues. “Renttech continually invests in and improves this product line as we believe it is a critical offering for South African industry. This can be seen in our newly adopted tagline on the UNIARC logo: Keep Evolving.
“Welding technologies are constantly improving, and we need to be able to offer up-to-date welding solutions that enable our customers to be competitive within their respective industries.”
The UNIARC range has grown to include welding equipment, ranging from stick to submerged arc solutions, handheld and automated plasma cutting solutions, engine driven welding solutions, handheld laser welding solutions, as well as hard automated solutions such as column and booms, rotators and manipulators.
Bester cites two existing product ranges that have been in South Africa for the past two years, which offer “excellent value for money” as well as a “host of new features that makes these excellent choices for modern fabricators or maintenance crews”.
UNIARC NOMAD engine drives
Extending the UNIARC range of engine-driven welding systems for remote onsite use, Renttech recently released two new products under the UNIARC NOMAD range. “First, the NOMAD 300S is a 300 amp single arc version and second the NOMAD 400DUAL, is a 400 amp dual arc system, meaning you can weld using a single arc and have two welders welding simultaneously,” Bester tells African Fusion.
The NOMAD300s is a cc/cv multi-process welding system powered by a Kubota engine and built for the construction, pipeline and mining industries. This 320 A unit offers excellent weld performance in stick mode with arc settings available for common electrodes such as E6013, low hydrogen electrodes such as E7018-1, or stainless-steel electrodes. There is also a special pipe mode for cellulosic electrodes, which are typically used in the water pipeline sector.
Should a welder need to do TIG welding, he or she can choose between traditional scratch start TIG – still favoured by many process pipe welders – or lift start TIG, which reduces the risk of tungsten inclusions in weld starts. “For wire processes such as MIG welding or flux-cored welding, we also offer the UNIFEED 24 voltage sensing suitcase wire feeder, made from hard wearing plastic composite, that you can connect to the NOMAD range for those projects requiring the use of higher deposition processes – such as storage tank fabrication or overland pipelines. On the auxiliary side, the NOMAD 300S also offers two single-phase 230 V auxiliary outputs for supplementary activities such as grinding or lighting,” he adds.
One step above the NOMAD 300S is the NOMAD 400 dual, which offers a dual arc welding system driven off a slightly stronger Kubota powerplant. “Our NOMAD 400Dual offers all the features and processes of the Nomad 300S machines, with a few additional features. You can choose to weld with a single arc at current levels of up to 400 A. Should you wish to run two arcs you have 210 A available per arc to use as you see fit. This does not necessarily have to be two stick welding arcs, but can be any combination of processes.
“For example: if welder one is required to do tack welding using sticks, and welder two is required to do a root pass on a pipe using TIG welding, both these processes can be used at the same time without any interference between the two arcs. This is made possible by unique coil winding technology,” Johan Bester tells African Fusion.
In addition to the two single phase auxiliary outlets, the dual unit also gives access to a 380 V three-phase outlet for non-welding work.
Smart engine controls, including a brushless alternator in both models, ensures excellent fuel efficiency as well as reduced yearly maintenance costs. The NOMAD range also offers industry leading sound levels of only 65 dB at just 7.0 m away, making the working environment more comfortable and improving construction team communication. Both units come standard with a VRD – voltage reduction device – to meet safety regulations for welding equipment used in the SA mining industry; and the unit is covered by a three-year warranty on parts and labour for the embedded welding equipment and a standard 1-year Kubota warranty on the engine.
“With more than 200 models in active use in the broader Southern Africa region for applications including pipelines, mining projects, construction projects, petrochemical shutdowns, railway maintenance, as well as power generation maintenance programmes, these units have proven their reliability and popularity with many contractors, who ask for it by name, whether to extend their fleet, or to rent from us for their short-term projects,” Bester notes.
The UNIARC Multi 201 XPRT
“On the other end of the spectrum, we recently released a modern, 200 A, single-phase, multi-process, ‘expert’ system: the Multi 201 XPRT. This system offers high end MIG/GMAW/FCAW processes, including conventional, pulse and double pulse GMAW options as well as DC TIG and pulsed DC TIG with touch, and high frequency starting options,” Bester continues. Also included are SMAW/STICK/MMA process options, including conventional and synergic SMAW for rutile, stainless steel, basic and cellulosic electrodes.
“The Multi201 XPRT is a serious industrial 220 V single-phase compact welding system. It offers flexibility and mobility, across the weld processes, with all the features and welding arc controls demanded by welding professionals. Dial in your weld according to material grade, plate thickness, welding process, and shielding gas and you are ready to weld.
“One of the highlights of this machine is the addition of high-frequency TIG, making the system suitable for industrial maintenance and repairs in tough environments such as power stations, offshore platforms, shipbuilding and petrochemical sites, to name a few. These sites have a lot of hard-to-reach piping that is welded mostly with HF TIG. Yet, there are other applications on the same site that must be welded using wire or stick processes. All these processes are included in the machine,” he tells African Fusion.
Another benefit is the addition of pulsed MIG as well as flux cored programs that redefine the material thickness range that can be welded from a 220 V single-phase unit without the risk of cold lapping or lack of penetration. “Normal CV MIG seen in conventional 220 V machines just doesn’t have enough amps to weld thicker materials. These welds are normally reserved for 3-Phase, 380 V machines. The pulse and flux cored programs remove this restriction and open a whole spectrum of applications and thicknesses that can now be welded with a 220 V system,” Bester assures.
“The tough LED touch screen display and knobs, designed for easy adjustment even in in low light conditions, make it a breeze to dial in your weld setting. The intuitive user interface guides you through all the important parameters and is shown on the main screen for easy access and navigation,” he adds.
There are also 100 memory locations for saving weld settings, and a digital keyboard to make it easy to name an ideal weld setting for easy identification and retrieval. The machine is equipped with a digital welding torch to allow the welder to adjust weld parameters from the torch, and the welding machine can be powered from a welding generator – typically a requirement for site conditions.
Electra Mining Africa
“All these new UNIARC solutions will be on show at our Electra Mining Africa Stand from 2 to 6 September 2024 at the Nasrec Exhibition Centre in Johannesburg. We will be doing live demonstrations across our whole range of products, including the new Kemppi machines, which we will be coupling with our new voestalpine Böhler Welding consumables. Please visit us in the Yellow Zone, Stand P75,” concludes Johan Bester.
