Modern Sensibilities Give 100-Year-Old Companies Staying Power
Innovation, adaptability, and an eye toward the future have kept five companies going strong for more than a century By Roline Pascal, assistant editor of the Welding Journal, and Cindy Weihl, senior editor of the Welding Journal Reprinted with permission: The AWS Welding Journal
The year was 1919 — there was no commercial air travel or internet, no cell phones or self-driving vehicles. Instead, World War I had just ended, the 18th amendment to the United States Constitution authorizing Prohibition went into effect, and Comfort A. Adams, then dean of the Engineering School at Harvard University, called together a meeting at which it was agreed to form the American Welding Society (AWS).
A lot has changed since then, and as AWS commemorates its first 100 years, it celebrates alongside several welding industry companies that have also stood the test of time and weathered wars, recessions, and technological revolutions to reach their centennial anniversaries.
The following five companies shared how they achieved longevity and stay current in an ever-changing industry.
Arcos: Local Company Reaches Global Heights
In 1919, Royal David Thomas founded Arcos Industries LLC, then called R.D. Thomas and Co., for steelmaking, heat treatments, and welding electrodes in Philadelphia, Pa. — Fig. 1. In 1931, R.D. Thomas and Co. merged with the coated electrodes producer, Arcos Belgium. Six years later, after building a quality reputation for stainless and low hydrogen coatings, the company developed the 307 electrode to weld armor instead of the then-scarce and expensive Alloy 310. The need was so great for coated electrodes that a new plant had to be acquired and tooled. Thomas became vice president, and then president, of Arcos, the result of the merger between the two Philadelphia-based companies. He was also a charter member of the AWS, founded just after WWI in 1919, and president of its local Pennsylvania State section. He is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of AWS.
In 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, causing battleships to sink in the harbor, Arcos developed an oxygen-arc process for cutting steel and armored plate underwater to clear the channels for ship movement.
In 1947, Arcos Corp. introduced the famous Schaeffler diagram, which is still frequently used and cited today. The Schaeffler diagram marked a new age for a wide range of technical applications in steel welding processes.
After attending a talk given by Royal David Thomas Jr., then-research and development director, during an AWS meeting in Milwaukee, Wis., Anton Schaeffler sought a job as an engineer at Arcos Corp. He benefited from the company’s broad experience and know-how.
Schaeffler presented the diagram in a paper for Arcos Corp. at the 28th Annual Congress of the AWS held in Chicago October 19, 1947, and published in the Welding Journal research supplement. He acknowledged the contributions of R. D. Thomas Jr., his manager and research director, and Hallock C. Campbell, vice president of Arcos Corp.
Thomas Jr. would become president of Arcos in 1956 and president of AWS in 1960–61. He would remain an active AWS member until his death at age 93. The company, for many years, was at the forefront in supplying power sources for advanced welding applications. After many years, a decision was made to drop out of that market to focus on development for higher strength, high-alloy weld consumables.
“It was Thomas Jr.’s belief this was where the real challenge and future of weld consumables was,” said Harry Wehr, Arcos’s general manager and past chairman of AWS’s Committee on Filler Metals and Allied Materials.
In 2006, Arcos was purchased by Dale Stager, owner and president of Select-Arc Inc., a manufacturer of welding consumables. The official partnership paved the way to combine their expertise in manufacturing, sales, R&D, and superior customer support.
For 100 years, Arcos devoted itself to welding, with all the strength of its organization and the competence of its people. Wehr credited his workforce to the continuous and ongoing success of the company.
“The employees of Arcos continue to be the driving force for the success of the company — their fathers and grandfathers worked at Arcos through the last few decades in Mt. Carmel [headquarters],” said Wehr. “We currently employ 90 salaried and union personnel working together to manufacture a superior end product to the global welding industry.”
Arcos has developed markets throughout North America and beyond to the Middle East, far east, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Investment in machinery, personnel, and process improvements have aided the company in today’s competitive environment. The company has plans to expand and upgrade its facility and increase its workforce in the years to come.
When asked where the company is headed in the future, Wehr replied, “The future of Arcos will be what its people make it. The individual know-how, devotion, interest, and accomplishments are the products of its people.”
Hobart: Innovation and Employees Lead to Centennial Success
Innovation, integrity, trust, and respect — those are just a few of the words that David Knoll, vice president and general manager, Hobart Brothers LLC, Troy, Ohio, used to describe the backbone of the 102-year-old company’s success.
Hobart Brothers Co. (now Hobart Brothers LLC) was founded in 1919 by C. C. Hobart and his three sons, W. H., E. A., and Charles, for the purpose of manufacturing specialty electrical equipment. In the 1920s, the company was largely focused on the manufacturing of welding power sources and battery chargers, which drove the company’s early growth. In 1939, Hobart began manufacturing covered electrodes and continued expanding its product line, leading to the broad offering of filler metals available from the company today. Hobart is now a leading manufacturer of flux-cored and metal-cored wires, as well as solid wires, covered electrodes, and a variety of alloys, including stainless and aluminum.
Knoll shared that innovation has been at the core of Hobart’s success from the beginning, and that, coupled with talented employees who are dedicated to understanding the needs of its customers and empowered to create solutions for them, has created a successful recipe.
Employees are important at Hobart. Knoll said the company and corporate values of integrity, success, respect, and shared risk provide a framework for individual accomplishment within the company vision and mission.
“Empowering employees to be successful at their jobs, no matter what their role, has been critical to our success over the last century,” said Knoll. “Our people make a difference — to our customers, to each other, and to our shareholders.”
To stay relevant in an ever-changing industry, Hobart believes in understanding customers’ needs in targeted markets and helping those customers do their jobs better. The company also believes high-performance products that are rooted in the needs of its target customers help keep the company relevant.
“We deliver those products at a very high level of quality and consistency, and at the same time, provide strong technical sales and application support,” stated Knoll.
As the company focuses on its future, Knoll said it will continue to build on its history of filler metal innovation and the adaptability to meet the application demands of the industry, even as it grows and evolves.
Now that the company has aligned itself with the full ITW (Illinois Tool Works) welding portfolio of products, including Miller Electric, Bernard™, and Tregaskiss, Knoll believes the company will continue delivering high-quality products and productivity to its customers.
“The history of Hobart has always been aligned with AWS, and we join all our welding partners in celebrating 100 years of its success,” he concluded.
ESAB: Shaping the Future of Welding and Cutting for 114 Years
Breakthrough welding and cutting innovations that solve customer problems, repeatable results, and increased productivity encompass the history of ESAB®, which was founded on September 12, 1904, in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Oscar Kjellberg founded Elektriska Svetsnings AtkieBolaget, Swedish for “Electrical Welding Limited Company,” in the port city of Gothenburg after training as a ship engineer. Kjellberg began his electrode research because, “I have been dissatisfied with unsatisfactory patching and repair methods used on ships, their steam boilers, and machine components in general.”
Kjellberg coated the electrode by dipping bare iron wire in thick mixtures of carbonates and silicates. In addition to solving contamination and embrittlement issues, his innovation laid the foundations for a totally new epoch of electrical welding, as his invention made it possible to exclude the oxygen in the air from the workpiece that was exposed to the heat of welding.
The nomenclature of many ESAB electrodes honor Oscar Kjellberg with his initials, OK. Products such as OK 48.00, first introduced in the 1930s, have been updated continuously.
Olivier Biebuyck, vice president and general manager, welding products, ESAB, believes a history of breakthroughs has led to ESAB’s success. The company has established a track record of innovative solutions, whether through internal R&D efforts, acquisitions, or collaborations, which created entire process and product categories that revolutionized the industry.
ESAB’s early activities in Gothenburg focused on ship repair services. Due to Britain’s maritime dominance, the company established the Anglo-Swedish Electric Welding Co. in London in 1911. Two years later, a similar subsidiary opened in Belgium, and the company also pursued an extensive contract with Mitsubishi in Japan.
During the 1930s, ESAB changed its business focus from repair operations to the development, production, and sales of electrodes, establishing subsidiaries in Spain, England, Denmark, Norway, Italy, and the United States. The company expanded into cutting technology in 1938. It became a partner in Kjellberg-Eberle, based in Frankfurt, to produce automated gas cutting systems.
In 1975, the company moved to nearby Karben, and ESAB’s global cutting automation operations remain headquartered there.
In the 1950s, ESAB established operations in Brazil and Canada. And followed with the United States in 1972, Italy in 1977, United Arab Emirates in 1982, the Czech Republic in 1993, Poland and China in 1994, Indonesia in 1997, and Russia in 1998.
The companies’ global reach enables ESAB to locally serve global companies, as well as tailor its products to meet local preferences.
In 2012, The ESAB group was acquired by its current owners, the Colfax Corp. Colfax implemented its business-management system, which emphasizes voice of the customer (VOC) research to target breakthrough growth initiatives, new products, and applications.
“Using VOC ensures that ESAB will continue its rich history of innovation, as demonstrated by some of the recent product introductions,” stated Biebuyck.
Looking toward the future, ESAB will continue to pursue innovation, expanded industry knowledge, and unwavering commitment to quality products and excellence in customer service. “The companies, brands, products, and processes associated with ESAB create a richness of deeply-rooted technical experience and knowledge unmatched globally,” added Biebuyck.
Koike Aronson/Ransome: Welding and Cutting Solutions Ensure Long-Term Success
Koike Sanso Kogyo was founded in Tokyo, Japan, in 1918 to provide welding equipment and gas apparatus — Fig. 6. At that time, Japan was undergoing a great deal of modernization and infrastructure development.
Now more than 100 years old, Koike is a global company with factories around the world that design and manufacture leading-edge technology in fiber laser, oxyfuel, plasma, water jet cutting machines, and welding positioners.
“Our central mission is helping fabricators be more efficient and more profitable, so as we innovate, we keep that foremost in our minds,” said President and CEO Fred Roy.
In 1937, Koike developed the IK-12 semiautomatic gas cutting machine and have been evolving it for the past 82 years, offering a fully programmable cutting and welding carriage.
Koike Aronson Ransome’s history goes back to 1946 when Chuck Aronson founded the Aronson Machine Co., a welding positioner manufacturer at which he invented and patented positioners that are still used today. That same year, Koike established its first oxygen manufacturing factory.
In 1969, Airco, a cutting machine operation, acquired Aronson Machine Co., then sold it ten years later to BOC. Koike then acquired the combined BOC’s Aronson Division in 1985 to add a welding positioner line to its cutting machine line.
In 2001, Koike Aronson purchased a large competitor based in Houston, Tex., called the Ransome Co., serving the needs of fabricators with everything from cutting torches and portable welding carriages to large cutting tables and welding positioners. The acquisition allowed Koike Aronson to offer a variety of positioning equipment. Today, the company is known as Koike Aronson/Ransome Inc.
The company has built its name on providing world-class welding and cutting solutions. With a wide variety of preengineered solutions, the cutting and welding manufacturer readily modifies or designs custom solutions to solve customers’ challenges.
Using a lean manufacturing principle and maintaining ISO 9001 certification since 2004, the company has invested substantially in its manufacturing facility, reducing cost by increasing efficiencies and designing to take advantage of these advanced manufacturing capabilities.
“The technology we are developing has to be directly applicable to our customers’ goals, whether you are talking about a steel service center, a fabrication company, or an industry such as oil and gas. Even after 100 years, we continue to listen and respond to their requirements and anticipate their needs for the future,” said Roy.
Additionally, there is a lot of institutional knowledge at the company. Members from both the Koike and Aronson families are still in the company today leveraging a century of fabrication expertise. The founding principles of Koike Aronson/Ransome Inc. were solving customers’ problems, and this remains the core of its culture today.
“Our customers are incredibly loyal, but we’re also introducing a whole new generation of welders and fabricators to Koike Aronson through support of STEM projects in public schools, colleges, and trade schools. It’s not only a great way to give back to the industry that we love, but ensure long-term success of our company,” said Roy.
Castolin Eutectic: Developments in Brazing and Soldering Processes Lead to Global Growth
The foundation of Castolin began in 1906 in Lausanne, Switzerland, by Jean-Pierre Wasserman. His stroke of genius was to discover a way of brazing cast iron at low temperature — a brazing process for the protection and repair of metals that would have been impossible to join otherwise. From this, Castolin continually developed fluxes, brazing alloys, and then welding electrodes. In the following years, Castolin Eutectic was formed and began to develop new low-temperature and eutectic brazing alloys.
“The company has a leading reputation for technology, service, and quality, which were the founding Swiss values that have been spread across the globe,” said Global Castolin Eutectic CTO Gary Heath. René Wasserman, the founder’s son, joined the company in the 1930s. Through his foresight and the use of “modern” sales techniques (demonstrations, application marketing), Castolin started on its road to glory.
Seeing immense possibilities in the United States, Eutectic Welding Alloys Corp. was created in 1940 in New York. Eutectic Welding Alloys Company Ltd. was formed in London in 1948 and Eutectic Italiana S.r.l. (Salteco S.p.A.) in Milan in 1949.
In 1960, the first Castolin workshops started to provide services with Castolin products. In 1967, the Castolin Eutectic Institute was created to educate technicians and make technical know-how easily available to the international technical community.
The company was not only revolutionary in terms of its developments in patents and in manufacturing processes, but also in the technical training of salesmen and customers on brazing and soldering methods. Castolin Eutectic was one of the first to develop noncorrosive aluminium fluxes in the 1960s, aluminium pastes in the 1970s, and nickel pastes in the late 1970s. These products were 15 to 20 years before their time.
With each new technology development, new solutions were sought to use in the repair and maintenance field. Thermal spray was an example, and in the 1980s the world’s first gas atomized powder production facility was developed. In 1991, the weld overlay wearplate arrived from German development, and today the Group has production facilities in more than ten countries. In 1996, the Global Industry program started and reinforced the global and technology platform for growth.
Castolin Eutectic gradually moved from product manufacturing to being a service provider and maintenance expert customers can rely on in case of emergency repairs in cement plants, steel plants, and power generation critical components.
“The biggest accomplishment is still to be recognized as a major player in the repair and maintenance area on a global basis, after 112 years of dramatic technology and social changes,” said Heath.
Additionally, global players have to battle local, low-cost competitors as well as product commoditization and low-cost manufacturing. The company has met those challenges by moving to services with specialized technology (laser, spraying, ceramic coatings), local production, and leveraging its direct contact with customers.
“The company culture is the glue that binds the employees and customers and is the default thinking when challenges are presented…the constant technical challenges related to the wide range of products and industries attracts problem-solvers and communicators,” said Heath.
Having patented more than 200 products in its history and still developing new products and processes today, the company is still in the hands of family, but those of the gas company Messer, based in Germany.
“The family company structure, in addition, makes for very human connections where people can spend their whole careers without getting bored,” Heath added.
Conclusion
Surviving adversities and growing a business is no easy feat, but Arcos, Castolin, ESAB, Hobart, and Koike have proven that with innovation, adaptability, and looking toward the future, the first 100 years of business is only the beginning. 
