Without compromising welding quality, Danish contract manufacturer Chris Jensen A/S wanted to try out more productive MIG welding to partially replace TIG welding. The fast and spatter-free operation of Kemppi’s X8 MIG Welder with WiseFusion was a pivotal element in the successful transition.

Chris Jensen A/S produces high-quality machinery and other production technology for its customers operating worldwide e.g. in the oil, chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries. The company welds and machines mainly stainless steel at its production units in Stenlille, Slagelse, and Kalundborg. They also take care of assembling the machinery at their customer’s production facilities around the world.As the customers’ quality requirements are high, any spatter or grinding of the welds is not allowed. Thus the welders have been mostly using TIG equipment to produce a perfect weld.“Our competitive advantage is, said in one word, quality. Our welders are very skilled, and they can handle the challenges of all kinds of materials, thicknesses, and quality standards," Production Manager Allan Guldborg says.

Growing demand requires productivity

To be able to respond to growing demand and to stay competitive in the increasingly challenging marketplace, Chris Jensen wants to speed up its production processes wherever it is possible – but without compromising quality. Around 90% of Chris Jensen’s production utilizes the TIG welding process, which produces high-quality welds, but it is slower than other arc welding processes.

The transition to a faster welding process would be one way of increasing welding productivity, and in specific applications, TIG welding could be replaced with MIG welding. However, this requires a lot from the welding equipment, which needs to live up precisely to the same expectations of high quality that the customers have.

“If we can convince our customers who have always relied on TIG welding that we can weld the exact same quality with MIG, but faster, there is a lot of potential,” Allan Guldborg explains.

Changing from TIG welding to MIG welding

To Chris Jensen, the fast and spatter-free operation of Kemppi’s X8 MIG Welder with the WiseFusion special process was a pivotal element in the successful transition. It is the newest addition to the company’s welding fleet, which consists solely of Kemppi’s TIG and MIG welding equipment. According to Allan Guldborg, the X8 MIG Welder is easy to operate and its wireless user interface, Control Pad, attracts especially the younger generation of welding professionals.

In practice, the X8 MIG Welder has replaced the TIG welding process in some of the welding applications with material thicknesses of 5 mm and up.

“During the last couple of months, welding speed has increased by 20-30% in those applications that have been changed from TIG to MIG. The welds have been beautiful and spatter-free. However, the transfer to MIG is not possible in all applications.”

Chris Jensen’s cooperation with Kemppi spans over several decades.

“We have been working with Kemppi for over 40 years. Their machines are very stable and reliable. When needed, their global service network gives excellent support in Denmark and wherever our welders take their equipment to do assembly and maintenance work at our customers’ sites,” Allan Guldborg says.