Arc Machines Inc.

AMI is a leading manufacturer of Orbital Welding Equipment for the Tube and Pipe Industry

Arc Machines Inc (AMI) is an American company based in Pacoima CA, USA and was established since 1976 and know as the industry leader in automated orbital TIG welding. Recently ESAB made a major investement in to the tube and pipe equipment firm which will add complementary technology and a strong global brand to the ESAB portfolio. 

AMI's orbital pipe and tube welding equipment is used primarily in power plants, refineries, offshore oil platforms, boiler construction, ship-building and similar industries. The equipment joins pipes to each other and to fittings using filler wire. Models range from those that weld small diameter joins (1 1/2") all the way up to those that weld the thickest piping at power plants.

Pipe Welding Power Supply

• Models 227 and 415

Tube Welding Power Supply

• Models 205, 207, 227, 307 and 417
• The New Model 217 WDR is a 100 / 150A programmable GTAW power supply. It is designed to work with all AMI’s orbital fusion weld heads and is capable of welding tube and thin wall pipe.
• WDR (Weld Data Recording): recording and saving weld data and exporting them to a storage device in their native or other file formats; saving project weld data records as a single file.
• 12” color touch-screen display
• Computer controlled internal memory for 1000+ weld schedules and up to 99 levels per schedule
• Manual or automated weld procedure generation
• Weld schedules: pulsed, step, no-pulsed, S3, and pulsed S3
• H.F. arc starting
• I.D. and O.D. gas pressure control and on-screen pressure monitoring
• Fault detection: gas, coolant, arc voltage
• Internal printer for print of schedule settings, and quantity of completed welds.
• Digital weld head control to allow connection to weld heads from other manufactures.

Weld Heads - Tube to Pipe

• Model No.9-250 9-500 9-750 9AFM-750 9-1500 9AF-1500 9E-1500 AFM-1500
  9-2500 9AF-2500 9E-2500 9-3500 9E-3500 9-4500 9E-4500 9ER-4500 9E-7 

Pipe Weld Heads

• Model 2, Modular Production Welding Systems
• Model 15, Large-Diameter Pipe Weld Head
• Model 15, Narrow-Gap Torch
• Model 81, Small-Diameter Pipe Weld Head
• Model 83 Elbow-to-Elbow Welder
• Model 79 Series, Full-Function Weld Heads
• Model 95 Series Open-Frame Heads
• Model 43, I.D. Pipe Weld Head
• Model 94, I.D. Spiral Cladding Weld Head
• Model 72, Valve Repair Weld Head
• Model 73, Small Bore I.D. Pipe Weld Head

Narrow Groove welding - Orbital welder
Orbital welding equipment to weld regular and multilayer high-chromium steel for power generation boilers, stainless steel for nuclear power generation equipment, Inconel® alloy and other high-alloy steels, and thick-wall stationary pipes. This process allows uniform welding with first-layer penetration in all positions. The wire feed and base metal fusion rates can be controlled independently, allowing the operator to select from a range of welding parameters.

Inside Diameter Welding
Special Inside Diameter (ID) orbital welding heads for cladding or welding from the inside diameter of pipes. Sophisticated heavy duty weld heads with AVC, Oscillator, and tilt functions that can be used with a wide variety of AMI torches and video monitoring systems. The weld heads are water cooled and are designed to allow easy set-up and operation. ID weld heads are often used for narrow gap welding of heavy wall pipes and cladding of pipes. Cladding heads are fully integrated and can be equipped with custom torch configurations.

Fusion Welding
AMI manufactures and sells the most extensive line of automatic orbital welding systems in the world. Our fusion tube and thin-wall pipe welding systems are designed to meet or exceed the critical welding specifications of industries as diverse as aerospace, bio-pharmaceutical, semiconductor, nuclear, food/dairy/beverage, and other industries and applications requiring high-quality sound and sanitary repetitive welds with 100% penetration.

Tube to Tube-sheet Welding
Tube to Tubesheet weld heads for autogenous or with filler wire welding.
Weld heads can be configured with a wide selection of torches and configurations to match all common tube sheet design. AVC function is standard on the more complex heads. AMI’s proven tube sheet weld heads provide productivity and ease of operation for our customers. Quick set-up, precision, and durability make the AMI weld heads the tube sheet manufacturers’ first choice

Integrated Welding Systems
Non-orbital, or fixed-head, automated welding systems for welding or cladding. A wide selection of AVC and Oscillator slides that can be configured to match the needs of the application. Turn-key welding packages include AVC, oscillator, wire feeder, power supply and touch screen controller. The weld heads can be easily integrated with the client’s existing positioners, manipulators, or other fixtures. On request, AMI can supply a welding system that includes the welding fixture or the positioning equipment

Thanks to its ability to realise high purity results, orbital welding found its place in the production of clean-room components for the semiconductor industry. Its application has now expanded to the construction of pipework and equipment for diverse industries like food processing, pharmaceuticals, chemical engineering, automotive engineering, biotechnology, shipbuilding and aerospace. Automated orbital TIG welding is also used in the construction of power stations, (thermal power plants). The construction materials used must be able to withstand the enormous mechanical loads produced by the high pressures and temperatures created by the media carried in the tubes. Notches, pores and inclusions in the weld seams must be avoided at all costs, as these create weak points that can lead to subsequent formation of cracks, which in turn can have serious consequences in terms of component failure. This means that tubes are often made from nickel-based materials with walls up to 200mm thick. One manufacturer has developed an orbital narrow gap welding system with hot-wire feed specifically for this purpose, which uses running gear that moves on a guide ring fixed around the tube. This new variant has excited a lot of interest in the sector, with the worldwide boom in power station construction fueling the never-ending search for increasingly productive manufacturing methods using new types of high-temperature steels.

AMI orbital equipment can also be used to manufacture the following products Process Towers, Chemicals Reactors, Silos, Storage Tanks, Heat, Exchangers, Pressure Vessels, Boilers, Pipelines , Ovens, Structural Steel, Columns Process and Biodiesel Plants

Applications of AMI orbital welders
Automated Orbital Welding, Orbital GTAW, Narrow Groove Welding Technology, Mechanized Welding, Mechanized GTAW
The range includes welding technology, automated orbital welding and narrow groove welding.
AMI machines offer outstanding quality, durability and functionality. This comes at a cost.

We have supplied Used and Refurbished AMI machines and orbital equipment for over 10 years offering affordable orbital welding solutions to those companies who have not the finances to purchase brand new AMI machines.

We supply cost-effective, highly automated, stable welding systems including welding power sources, control systems, weld heads and consumables.
Guide to the Orbital Welding Process. | Westermans Blog

Don't want to risk the capital outlay for such an amazing machine? Ask us about short and long term rental. 
However Used orbital welders are very affordable and lease options can be arranged. Interested? Ask for more details.

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We can supply OEM parts, spares as well as training, tuition and guidance on any AMI tube to tube welding plant.