ESAB Welding & Cutting Products, Company History

ESAB Quality Backed By Over 100 Years of Experience
The foundation of ESAB was built early in the century by an inventive engineer who sought a practical solution to a common problem. In 1904, Oscar Kjellberg produced a heavily fluxed, or coated, electrode that substantially improved the quality of weld metal. As it melted, the flux coating vaporized and formed a gas that shielded the molten weld metal from air, thus preventing embrittling reactions from occurring as the weld metal cooled.

Lightly coated electrodes of various types had been tried before, and some of them permitted faster welding, but none of them improved the weld metal properties. Kjellberg was the first to recognize the possibilities of the heavy flux coating in preventing atmospheric contamination and today is recognized as the inventor of the coated electrode.

Since Kjellberg founded Elektriska Svetsnings-Aktiebolaget (ESAB) in Sweden in 1904, the company has led the welding industry in engineering and innovation, never losing sight of ESAB's original mission to provide its customers the highest caliber of products and services.

Today's ESAB is the result of a 1989 union of industry leaders: Alloy Rods Corporation, L-TEC Welding & Cutting Systems, All-State Welding Products, ESAB Automation and ESAB Welding Products. These companies represent over 300 years of experience in welding consumables and equipment manufacturing, and have introduced many innovative products and processes, including stainless stick and low hydrogen electrodes, as well as submerged arc, TIG ("Heliarc") and MIG welding.

In 1994, Charter plc acquired ESAB in an effort to expand its base of worldwide industrial companies. Charter, headquartered in London, is a $1.6 billion industrial conglomerate. Even though ESAB is now a part of Charter's global business, Charter's philosophy is one of operational decentralization, so ESAB will continue operating as it always has -- leading the industry in providing innovative welding solutions for its customers.

All of ESAB's major manufacturing facilities in North America are ISO 9002 certified. The plants in Hanover, Pa., and Ashtabula, Ohio, were the first two plants in the industry to receive the certification, and more recently ESAB's plants in Florence, S.C., and Monterrey, Mexico, earned ISO 9002 status.

One of the reasons ESAB's plants have attained such high-quality standards is because of their unyielding commitment to testing consumables and equipment.

In the case of consumables, every raw material that enters a North American production facility undergoes rigorous chemical and physical testing before being processed. Furthermore, critical monitoring and testing procedures take place at every stage of manufacturing.

The testing of ESAB's equipment is just as demanding. Every new piece of equipment is given a series of environmental tests, including impact, vibration and operational tests. In addition, techniques such as Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) are used in ESAB's development work in order to comply with the market requirements.

Operating for over 90 years, ESAB Welding & Cutting Products, part of Charter plc, headquartered in London, is the world's largest manufacturer and provider of welding and cutting equipment and welding filler metals.