01/19/2007

ESAB Sells New Panel Cutting Machines to Gulf Shipyards

Florence, SC – ESAB Welding & Cutting Products has announced that, after nearly four years of technical discussions and meetings, Ingalls Shipyards in Mississippi and Avondale Shipyards in Louisiana have each placed orders with ESAB for a new panel cutting machine. Both machines will be manufactured in Florence. Construction from start to finish is expected to take approximately 18 months.

Each machine will be configured with an Expert Motion Plasma VBA System with ESAB’s new 600 amp m3 Plasma System; two seven-axis Triple Header oxyfuel cutting heads; a Multi-Directional 7-horsepower Belt Grinding System for high-speed surface cleaning; a Multi-Directional Inkjet Plate Marking System for high-speed plate marking of characters, lines and bar codes in any direction; two Plasma Marking systems for layout line marking and an Onboard Dust Collection System. These machines represent some of ESAB’s most advanced technology and engineering.

This large and complex order is largely the result of a team effort on the part of ESAB personnel and in response to ESAB’s performance on previous orders. The Ingalls Shipyards were devastated by Hurricane Katrina and had to replace all of their cutting machines in 2005. Some of the old machines were manufactured by ESAB/L-Tec and some were competitor’s machines. Ingalls replaced all of their previous machines with eight ESAB Avenger 1 and 2 cutting machines, most incorporating Plasma Bevel stations, and also purchased 500 653CVCC welding machines. “Due to ESAB’s performance, Ingalls has again put their trust in us for the supply of the Panel Line Cutting Machines,” says Jeff Hoffart, Sr. Vice President & General Manager, Equipment, Cutting & Steel Industry Products. “This order demonstrates the stellar effort on the part of our ESAB team to keep this customer and others exceedingly pleased with our products and service.”