Modern food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries set very high requirements to the quality of the surface of technical equipment in contact with the product, and especially, to welded joint quality. Welding is the most common method used in the manufacture of metal structures of various destinations. Welded joint of various parts into a whole is considered so far the most reliable and firm, and is rightly considered one of the most complex production processes, to which the highest requirements are set. As early as in the 1960ies, aerospace engineers admitted the need for high quality welded joints in pipeline production, and started developing a welding machine that would allow obtaining high-quality welding joints. Welding parameters were adjusted by a control system that automated the entire process. The development result was a welding method, more accurate and reliable, in comparison to the manual, namely, orbital welding. This method is based on argon arc welding, or TIG, in which an electrode mechanically rotates at 360° around a static workpiece. Orbital welding has all TIG advantages, plus absolute control over all parameters.

The soft spot of any manned welding is this very human participation in the process. Whatever welder qualification is, he/she will fail to reproduce the same permanently quality result on thousands of products. Human factor absence is a key to orbital welding perfect quality, at which the entire welding process, from current parameters control to electrode movement speed, is automated.

Pipeline orbital welding is often used in aerospace, nuclear, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, and food industries. For solving the certain tasks, orbital welding is the sole solution.

Orbital welding is one of the advanced inventions in the field of welding process automation. Orbital welding process automation allowed reducing labour inputs, but, most importantly, increasing reliability, quality, and fineness of a welding joint, which is essential for production that sets high requirements to reliability and fineness of the surface in contact with the environment.