Advanced science and innovation company (ASIC) acquires 30% stake in Adelaide based K-TIG
K-TIG was Innovyz's second client and we're so proud that they are now a successful global business.
PRESS RELEASE: K-TIG
Adelaide, South Australia – the United Arab Emirates-based Advanced Science and Innovation Company (ASIC) has made a significant investment in South Australia’s advanced manufacturing sector, with the group taking a 30% stake in well-known Adelaide welding technology company K-TIG. “K-TIG is a bright light in South Australia’s advanced manufacturing sector” said K-TIG CEO Neil Le Quesne. “Highly targeted support provided by the State Government has been instrumental to our success,” he said.
“A grant was provided which allowed us to conduct an international case study with one of the world’s largest fabricators, and the stunning success of this pilot has led not only to export orders but to attracting the attention of leading institutional investors.” “Here in South Australia we have enormous capability, an exceptionally well educated workforce, superb collaboration between research organisations and industry, and a highly supportive Government and policy environment” said Neil Le Quesne. “We have the mix right – it’s now up to us as entrepreneurs, management teams and our workforces to capitalise on opportunities and bring to market the next-generation products and services which the international market is demanding.”
South Australia’s Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Kyam Maher said the ASIC investment was great recognition for another South Australian advanced manufacturing company positioning itself on the world stage.
“Attracting international institutional investors clearly requires world leading technology,” said the Minister.
“It also requires a supportive business and policy environment, which is exactly the platform we have built through our strategic investment in industry development,” he said.
Winner of the 2014 Australian Industrial Product of the Year and the 2015 Defence Industry Innovator Award, K-TIG has developed an ultra-high-speed, full penetration welding technology that welds up to 100x faster than conventional welding in materials up to 16mm in thickness – in one pass.
Extraordinarily, the technology eliminates the need for wire, edge preparation and skilled operators while requiring just 1/20th of the gas and power needed by other welding processes.
“Attracting international institutional investors clearly requires world leading technology.
K-TIG serves a wide range of industry sectors involved in precision fabrication including oil & gas, defence, aerospace, pressure and suction vessels, cryogenics, heat exchange, desalination, pipe making and minerals processing. “Welding technology has until now changed very little in the last 50 years” said Mr Le Quesne. “The major welding equipment manufacturers have accessorised around conventional welding processes, but it’s difficult to identify an innovation of this magnitude since the 1960’s”.
“In two short years, K-TIG has managed to turn the way we think about welding on its head and has developed technologies which have eluded the world's largest welding equipment manufacturers in the US and Europe.
''This technology places a tool in the hands of fabricators which routinely reduces the time, gas and power required to weld steels and exotic materials by more than 90%''. The Advanced Science & Innovation Company (ASIC) shares K-TIG’s enthusiasm for the technology, and expects that it will be embraced by the global oil and gas industry, in addition to a wide range of other fabrication-dependant sectors. ASIC General Manager Filip Matwin said K-TIG’s proprietary process was already bringing order-of- magnitude productivity gains to the global fabrication sector.
“Global 500 companies are achieving order of-magnitude cost savings by simply replacing their conventional welding system with K-TIG,” he said. “The productivity gains and cost reductions being experienced by these companies is extraordinary, with payback on the technology achieved in months rather than years. We expect this to be a highly disruptive technology, and we are absolutely delighted to be a part of the company’s development.”
More recently, the pace of change for the company has accelerated rapidly as K-TIG has developed an international distribution network which now spans Europe, Asia and the Middle East, with the US market next in its sights.
At the same time, K-TIG is again investing heavily in R&D and it anticipates bringing to market successive generations of the technology, together with specialist product offerings for specific target markets.
“We expect that the adoption of the K-TIG process will expand exponentially over the coming years as industry begins to leverage its full potential.”
About ASIC
The United Arab Emirates based Advanced Science & Innovation Company (ASIC), invests globally in transformative new technologies in advanced manufacturing, renewable energy and bio sciences. ASIC acts as a commercialisation vehicle for a number of innovative science and technology projects and products, and also as Project Manager and Consultant throughout the GCC, Africa, China, and beyond.
About K-TIG
Keyhole TIG Limited (K-TIG) is an Australian unlisted public company which has developed a high speed, single pass, full penetration welding technology that eliminates the need for wire, edge bevelling or skilled operators and produces exceptional quality welds up to 100x faster than conventional welding in materials up to 16mm in thickness.
Contact:
Neil Le Quesne, CEO, K-TIG neil.lequesne@k-tig.com | 0437 775 758
