Fronius 300i wave multi process

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Good morning all, been a long time since ive posted! ended up retiring from the power company as a boiler welder and fired up my own business about 4 years ago now. ANYWAY i was at my local welding supplies dealer yesterday and they have made me aware that they are picking up Fronius as a brand and will also be a dedicated repair facility... one of the biggest welding suppliers in Canada innovair. For years ive always heard amazing things about fronius but never considered one due to lack of support here in Canada. However yesterdays discussion with the dealer changed that mindset. Ive been waiting for a while to find a quality company that has an " all in one " AC/DC tig, stick, and mig capabilities package that performs. My piece of garbage (green goblin) i call it, everlast 255ext has finally bit the dust after 4 years... i knew going in it wasnt a long term investment, but a great business starter machine that did pay for itself. Would never consider one again though! I am just curious who may be running a fronius iwave 300i or similar series? and what your thoughts are on it. Ive pretty much stepped away from the pipe welding game other than the odd stainless chemical line or something like that. But i do a lot of custom fabrication items that do require tig, but our bread and butter is the heavy equipment industry cutting parts on our plasma table, bucket repairs/builds/ rock trucks, basically anything in the mining industry. So while an understatement i run hundreds of pounds of dual shield wire generally in .45, and of course run lots of stick. The biggest draw for me is just having the all in one feature.... and having all my process's on one cart and flipping a switch to change process's, saving room in the shop etc. Only downside i suppose is if the one machine does go down its all down. But i do have the 600 big blue on the rig that i can always fire up if need be. Another positive thing i see is the ability to run aluminium wire directly through their same mig gun and liner setup, not needing a spool gun would be excellent. Quite an exciting opportunity i feel. I feel the 300i would likely be the best option as the majority of dual shield i run is around that 27-28v on the high end, the next one down which is a 230i i believe would be a touch small for my applications.
Reply:We've got several Fronius machines at work and I've been pretty happy with how they've performed. I haven't put my mitts on one yet, but I can already see tons of similarity between the TPSi series and the new iWave models. The TPSi I've used is a 400 with CMT and PMC (pulsed mig) and we've been mainly using it with aluminum and inconel and it's been great to us. I know plenty of people that have had reservations about Fronius in the US because of the perceived lack of support and general knowledge, but the local rep from Fronius USA has been great when it comes to getting wear parts and their new parts website has made it even easier. I can't speak to the service side as we've never had a need to have on of the machines worked on. It appears that Fronius took the existing feature set of the TPSi power sources and added HF ignition and AC waveform capability to make the iWave series. The only downside I see to the iWave series in a multiprocess configuration is going to be cost. By the time you buy the base iWave 300 power supply, the wire feeder, a MIG push gun I'm expecting that the list on a package like that will be $15-16k. And more if you want the advanced waveform functionality like PMC. If you're running a lot of aluminum you'll probably want to add a separate gun so you don't have to change the liner constantly. The graphite liners work fantastically well to feel aluminum wire without needing a true push-pull gun, but they will also wear faster if you're running steel. Also, I don't think the iWave 230 and below can be configured in multiprocess trim, they're going to be CC TIG and SMAW only. No option for GMAW, that's reserved for the 300/400/500.
Reply:Thankyou for the information! I certainly knew that there would be a significant upfront cost to a machine like this. Although at the same time, and this is what has held me off for a while on a purchase for a new tig/stick. Is that here in canada anyway to get into even a dynasty 280dx with a ready pak is 13,000$ my cost which i feel is obscene for a machine like that, and relatively unjustifiable unless your doing alot of aluminium or tig work. The biggest seller for me on the fronius is the stick and mig for dual shield purposes. The tig for me seems to be less and less as years go by but still something i absolutely need to offer business wise. Another downside i do see, is even with the green goblin everlast i have now i do like it for the portability for onsite aluminum work, i would forgo that luxury going with the 300i which i am not entirely against to be honest. I would consider myself only requiring a somewhat base model of this 300i as i really dont require much in the way of fancy features, i barely use all the wave forms on my everlast. As for mig pulse cant say ive ever used it my background is basically pipe welding on thermal steels P91, inconel, hastalloy, stainless etc. But for the business i really dont see any exotics anymore. Essentially just high amperage dual shield welding, stick welding, and then obviously the typical smaller scale projects where a .035 would work. I wouldnt be suprised even a base model at my cost would be in that 14-15000$ range canadian.
Reply:I think you will be impressed with Fronius Canada’s commitment to service.  Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk:
Reply:

Originally Posted by Lis2323

I think you will be impressed with Fronius Canada’s commitment to service.  Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Reply:im sure youll luv that 300iwave (230iwave is what i have). not that long ago i bought three new fronius machines because i feel like fronius is at the top of the hill with technology and i just like the direction fronius is going. you can dload the owners manual if you want to know all about the machine before you buy itinvertig 221 water cooledhypertherm powermax 30xpfronius transpocket 180fronius transsteel 2200fronius iwave 230i water cooled