Today we are talking to Philippe Judas who manages innovation within the heart of Olivier Revel’s team.  

Philippe: tell us about your work-experience…

I started at Serimax in 2003 as a welding technician within the R&D department and since then I have taken part in the development and integration of the mGMAW-Pulse, GMAW-Pulse Twin, GMAW-CMT (Cold Metal Transfer) and most recently the GTAW-HW on our fleet of equipment.

Serimax is for me a technological leader in terms of mastery and integration of welding processes and the complexity of implementation in difficult environments where perfect reproducibility must always be ensured.

In a world where innovation is more and more common, why is Serimax’s offer unique in the world of welding?

I think what’s interesting here is the robust, field-proven, automatic efficiency that we bring to the table, meaning we are welding much faster than anyone in the industry whilst maintaining top quality. Serimax has the capacity to design loyal and proven solutions to reach productivity above 100 welds per day. Providing the industry with automated success even in the most critical of industries such as Nuclear. When the welder uses an automated machine, it guarantees weld success meaning that you don’t have to worry about the quality of the manual weld and not only that but it’s easy-to-use and has been designed for welders by welders.

Serimax has been developing welding equipment for oil and gas applications for 40 years and operates all over the world in harsh environments requiring rock-solid robustness. What is unique about our solutions is the breadth of the spectrum ranging from welding engineering and equipment to support on production site (welding engineers, maintenance team, welders). The main objective of innovation at Serimax is to serve the specific needs of our customers in order to meet increasingly stringent specifications. Thanks to our 40 years of expertise in the world of automatic welding, Serimax is now able to meet the requirements of other industries such as Nuclear.

What is your innovation plan for GTAW-HW process in 2023?

We strive for quality, productivity and speed all whilst maintaining top HSEQ. So in 2023, we want to be able to go even faster, because even three times faster than current solutions, we still obtain a far better quality weld. We actually manage to achieve the quality of GTAW weld with a level of productivity close to that of GMAW while reducing human intervention and above all reducing the risk of accidents related to grinding operations.

How does this welding procedure equip us for the future?

The acceptance criteria’s are getting tougher and therefore with this innovation we are ready to meet the needs of tomorrow. However, as we are not a company that enjoys complacency we are always developing and improving our solutions at our welding technology centre in Paris, our ambition is to go above and beyond expectations for the welding world.

Which range of automatic machines currently operates with GTAW welding process?

Saturnax 09! It is the latest generation of bug and band system from Serimax and is the result of 40 years of experience in mechanized welding. It can operate single or dual-torch GMAW (STT/CMT/PULSE/CV) and GTAW (Pulse, Hot Wire) processes. Without forgetting HSEQ considerations, Saturnax 09 is equipped with a welding fume extraction circuit.