It will be an alternative for people, businesses and organizations across the world who are willing to consider it, compared to ‘Made in China’. The opportunity is there, we need to make the most of it says Nimesh Chinoy, Marketing Director, SigmaWeld, Electronics Devices Worldwide Pvt Ltd.

How do you see Atmanirbhar Bharat to impact your sector?
Atmanirbhar Bharat has been the need of the hour to boost Indian industries. Currently, we have many reasons to move towards the direction of Atmanirbhar Bharat. We cater to many sectors such as waste industry sector, food, pharma, automobile, heavy fabrication, railways, defence and aerospace. All these sectors stand to boost tremendously.

What are the changes you foresee in the welding industry supply chain in the post-pandemic world? The post-pandemic world would be driven by automation. Supply chain disruptions at the moment will continue as not all components that we need are manufactured in India. The ecosystem will take some time to be completely independent. In the meantime, efforts on making things reliably, consistently and economically within India have to take priority.

In terms of current market dynamics, what will be the new normal for the welding industry in 2020? The new normal has already begun. Most of the companies will go digital for training, engaging customers, providing customer support. We will learn to adapt to newer technologies that help operate things remotely. The welding industry is no different; we will pivot towards Industry 4.0, data monitoring systems, automated solutions.

For example, if you need to attend a breakdown call for welding equipment or an SPM, our engineer has to be physically present. We are now working on AR (Augmented Reality) which will allow the customers’ maintenance team to use the expert system and attend the call on their own without the need for specific training. People will travel less and get more things done easily. Although these technologies existed in other industries, the utility will now be high even in welding for such systems.

How has the pandemic catalysed the increased use of mechanization and AI in the welding sector? This pandemic has led a lot of assumptions to go haywire. We have 1.2 billion people in India, can you believe it when industries say they do not have the manpower or the skilled manpower as needed. What was once our advantage and taken for granted of having cheap labour is no longer an assumption that holds. Also, the cost of manpower and resources will go up further in the coming days.  

There is going to be a spike in demand over the next couple of months to cater to this automation and robotics will lead the way. The way to be competitive and serve the global market the acceptability of mechanized solutions and AI will go up. It was always a question of cost, now the question will be of opportunity cost. Are you willing to let go of the opportunity due to lack of resources? Or are you willing to set up and be ready to cater to the demand in unexplored markets? ‘Made in India’ will be an alternative for people, businesses and organizations across the world who are willing to consider it, compared to ‘Made in China’. The opportunity is there, we need to make the most of it.

For manual welders, what additional safety measures will become a new norm owing to the pandemic? Social distancing and taking care of themselves using the correct PPE. Welders’ PPE is well suited for the pandemic as they were a helmet during welding, wear gloves and so most of the time their face is covered. They will need to be careful about the fatigue part if they are wearing a mask inside the helmet. Fume extractors will help ease the process for the manual welders as well.

What products from your stable are driving growth for your business in the current economic cycle? Our SigmaTherm Induction Heaters for pre weld, post weld heat treatment makes preheating faster, safer and easier. It also replaces Oxygen based torches that were used for heating with the present ban on Oxygen supply to industries this product is well poised to ensure customers production doesn’t get hampered due to lack of gas, or person. Also compared to gas-based heating, induction heating solutions are at least 50 per cent faster for preheating applications, which means you can turn around your production quicker and shorten your cycle time.

We also have various value-added products such as Cold and Hot Wire Feeders which help in making manual welders 30 per cent faster in GTAW. They can also be easily coupled with standard products to make semi-automated solutions to increase productivity. Our SWAT (SigmaWeld Accelerated TiG) is another product that increases speed upto 100x in GTAW welding for Stainless Steel, Nickle Alloys, Titanium etc. It is a square butt welding with zero root gap upto 8mm thickness. We gave this solution to a customer welding 6 Meter Long Seams of 6mm thick Hesta-alloy. 

This typically takes about two days or more to weld considering edge preparation and multi-pass welding. With SWAT and a mechanized solution, this same 6 Meter long seam is now being welded in less than 15 minutes.

We also specialize in SigmaCapseal, our Induction Sealers, which are used in food, pharma and other industries. We have seen a great jump in sales in these products both domestically and internationally. We have seen many countries which gave preference to low-cost products from China shift to our products as they are proudly ‘Made in India’.