Polysoude, a specialist in welding integration, has been creating solutions best adapted to the requirements of industry since its foundation in the early 1960s.

The France-based company has competencies in the area of arc-welding processes and their automation. Polysoude says it uses the latest technologies for maximum quality and minimum defects: TIG/GTAW, Plasma, MIG-MAG/GMAW/FCAW, all position orbital welding and mechanised solutions.
The company’s product range revolves round orbital welding and mechanised welding, while it also offers other products. In orbital welding it is concerned with welding power sources, real-time data acquisition systems, closed chamber and heads, open weld heads, tube-tube sheet welding heads, wire feeders and special equipment for orbital welding.
Products under mechanised welding include welding power sources, real-time data acquisition systems, welding manipulators and peripherals and electro-magnetic components.
Other products it offers are tube-end preparation, clasping systems, purge systems, oxygen indicators, electrode grinding machines and sharpened tungsten electrodes.
Polysoude, an exhibitor at Gulf Industry Fair, has a worldwide presence and a team of skilled technicians. The company is engaged in research and development, extensive tests and feasibility studies, industrial standard systems focusing on reliability and ‘user-friendly’ man-machine interface, small series of top-quality hardware (dedicated mechanical and electronic engineering), welding services and after sales and various training and commissioning programmes.
Earlier this year the company reported it received several orders and order intentions, reaching more than 10 million euros, for turnkey installations intended for turbine shaft production, as well as for continuous welding of boiler tubes. The orders were placed by leading worldwide constructors of conventional and nuclear power plants.
“Polysoude is thus becoming a major player worldwide for orbital and mechanised welding applications, mastering various arc-welding processes,” it said.
The company points out that it helps boost productivity in plant engineering. A  prime  example  of  this  is  automated  orbital  TIG  welding  when manufacturing  stainless  steel  heat  exchangers.  Many, often several thousand, tubes need to be welded into a tube sheet which amounts to a week-long task for a skilled manual welder.  By investing in automation with orbital welding  systems  from  Polysoude,  one  in  three manufacturers in Europe, have now been able to overcome bottlenecks, it says.
According to Polysoude, modern  methods  of  automated  manufacturing  reduce  the  amount  of  time  required  for  each  individual  joining  process  by  an  average  of  30 per cent;  the welder  is even able  to carry out additional work during  the process.  Other savings offered by the technology are reduction to virtually zero of scrap and repair work   and a considerable reduction in the time and cost of compulsory checks.
“The range of ingenious full-function power sources, together  with  a  comprehensive  line  up  of  welding  heads  from Polysoude,  easily  permit  the  very  simple  welding  of  multiple  tubes simultaneously, without any additional personnel. The amount of training for each operator is entirely manageable. Operators can learn how to use the orbital welding system in less than a day.”
In the food and drinks industries with their complex piping and vessels TIG orbital welding has achieved welding seam qualities in production shops that comply with international standards. The EHEDC (European Hygienic Engineering Design Group), the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) and the very stringent FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the US recommend this jointing process.
As the FDA standard is at the same time the guideline for the pharmaceuticals manufacturers, orbital TIG welding gains significance.
TIG orbital welding is useful in biotechnology and fine chemistry. “Spotlessly clean, smooth welding seams offer no weak point for contamination, bacteria, product adhesion or corrosion. In all this, the productivity factor is a further advantage for all plant constructors and operators in deciding for the automatic welding process,” says Polysoude.
In addition to the chemical industry, further domains of automatic orbital welding are aerospace engineering, oil and gas exploration and power station construction.
Says Polysoude: “Against a background of global warming and in the context of CO2 emission and a reliable, politically and economically calculable energy supply, the latter is gaining more and more importance – the worldwide trend is again towards nuclear power stations. Here as in conventional power generation, orbital welding is the standard with its high, repeatable quality – mile upon mile of piping and bends to be joined, from the simple boiler tube up to the massive high-pressure pipe and also the thousands and thousands of tube ends to be welded into heat exchanger tube sheets.”
Pipelines which transport oil or natural gas with high speed and under high pressure require big investments. Indeed, very high quality materials are demanded to resist sand and other abrasive minerals, or corrosive materials. Thus pipes and pipes components manufacturers improve the inner surface of pipes by a welding technique called cladding. During this operation, the interior of pipes, which is in black steel and not expensive is reinforced by a layer of inconel, an extremely resisting material.
Thanks to intensive researches, Polysoude and its subsidiaries around the world who specialise in mechanised and automatic welding, have developed an economical system using hot wire TIG welding for these cladding applications. The company has become a specialist in this domain with exports in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
The company’s headquarters is in Nantes, France (www.polysoude.com).
Its agent in Saudi Arabia is Alruqee Industrial Marketing Co Ltd, Al Khobar (www.alruqee.net).