AFRICAN FUSION—MARCH2014
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Rebranding of Böhler product range
the supplyof tool steelsandmedium to
highalloyarcweldingconsumablesand
dominates consumables supply for the
EskomMedupi andKusile power plant
projects,” Ulrich tells
African Fusion
.
The brands
Globally, Böhler Schweistechnik and
Thyssen Schweistechnik have oper-
ated as a joint venture company since
1996, but in 2003, the two merged
fully when Böhler-Uddeholm bought
the remaining shares in Thyssen. The
T-PUT and Thyssen brands have their
histories in this relationship. “These
brands will be consolidated under the
Böhler brandname,whichwill become
the new global division for all joining
consumables for new build work,”
Elfering explains. “So Thyssen, Avesta,
T-PUT, and parts of the current Böhler
and UTP ranges will all be rebranded
as BöhlerWelding.”
Soudokay isanothergroupcompany
that specialises in the manufacture of
coredwires, submerged arc fluxes and
variousconsumables forhardfacingand
maintenance, such as strip and fluxes
for electroslag cladding. “In Brazil,
these consumables are widely used in
the sugar industry, for example, for the
recovery of worn surfaces on the ba-
gassecrushing rolls,” saysElfering. The
range also includes complete solutions
for special anti-wear andanti-corrosion
linings, especially in the petrochemical
and offshore industries.
“Along with the UTP cladding and
repair electrodes, the Soudokay range
will be rebranded under theUTPMain-
tenance umbrella, which will become
a brand synonymous with aftermarket
and repairweldingwork,”hesays. “This
brand is designed to suit work such as
maintenance shut downs, overlay clad-
dingandbuildupworkonCat9 tractors,
ie, itwill cover life extensionand repair-
related consumable needs.”
Citing the company’s strip cladding
expertise,Elferingsays that,withall the
strip consumables, UTP Maintenance
offers the best strip cladding head on
themarket. “And, alongwith thenewly
developed high-speed fluxes and our
long track record in this area, we can
offer themost economical and efficient
stripcladdingsolutionsavailable. In the
sameway asGillette razors areused to
sell blades, our cladding heads sell our
strip and fluxes, because they can lay
soundmetal at speeds of up to 40 cm
per minutes,” he says, adding that
UTP products arewidely used for strip
cladding repair work of petrochemical
towers.
The third key brand for voestalpine
Böhler Welding will be the Fontargen
range of silver, silicon bronze and
copper bronze brazing
consumables, which will
expand to include UTP
brazing products. From its
factory and headquarters
in Eisenberg, Germany,
Fontargen offers a com-
plete lineof rods,powders,
pastes, fluxes, rings and
wires for brazing/welding
the full rangeofmetalsand
alloys. The primary focus
of theFontargenbrandwill
be: the heating, cooling,
ventilation and air condi-
tioning industry (HVAC);
automotive OEMs and
third tier suppliers; and the
solar energy industry.
“Our business starts
with steel and without
steel, you have nothing to
weld onto. But the con-
verse is also true: the steel
is useless unless you have
consumables and joining
technology. Our strength
in the welding industry is
on the consumables side.
We don’t sell equipment,
which is an advantage
because it allows us to
focus solely on matching
the base material and the
consumables – and it also
forces us to manufacture
steels and consumables
that canbeweldedbyany-
one’s equipment,” Elfering
argues.
Another key local goal
is the expansion of the
Böhler-UddeholmSAoperatedAustrian
WeldingAcademy (AWA) in Isando. “We
are employing a competent welding
instructor in the AWA to train welders
according to international standards
on the use of our products. It is well
known that current failure rates are
unacceptably high,” Ulrich points out.
“A little extra investment in training
can help to reduce failure rates and
associateddelays toprojects. Thewell-
equippedWelding Academy offers this
possibility, but we need to emphasise
and recognise this and change our ap-
proach. Currently,wedeal directlywith
users through our branches, but we
also want to attract distributors – and
the Academymight also need tomove
into thebranches to improve its reach,”
he suggests.
Elfering’s outlook for Africa? “The
evolution in the welding industry from
sticks to solidand flux-coredwires took
a long time in Europe. Here in Africa,
it is likely to be faster, because the
technology is available. We still see
Along withUTP cladding and repair electrodes, the Soudokay range
will be rebranded under theUTPMaintenance umbrella.
The third key brand for voestalpine BöhlerWelding will be the Fontargen
range of silver, silicon bronze and copper bronze brazing consumables,
whichwill expand to also include theUTP brazing products.
a lot of people welding with sticks in
South Africa, but there are also many
welding with pulsed-MIG equipment,”
he points out. “We see the adoption of
modern processes going very quickly,
particularly sincewehave theproducts
to support this change.
“There are plans to ‘light upAfrica’
and for this you need energy. So I see
power plants, along with urban infra-
structure, petrochemical plants and
industry going up all over Africa. The
whole of the African continent needs
energy, oil and gas and electricity from
coal firedpower stations.Weknow that
the Karoo has vast reserves of shale
gas, for example, andweareoptimistic
about the exploration possibilities.
“This will create jobs and welding
related business opportunities – power
plants, offshore platforms, shipyards
and pipelines. We bring knowledge of
steel and knowledge of consumables
andweldingprocesses.Via training,we
canput all these together toensure that
projects succeed,” Elfering concludes.
