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Colfax Corporation, having purchased ESAB and the Victor group, is no doubt streamlining and reducing redundancies.

The 161 inverter they sell here is different than the equivalent welders they sell in Europe. The European units are very much like the Thermal Arc 161/201. I believe they are made in China by the same company, but Thermal Arc probably had an exclusive back when. Perhaps ESAB will eliminate the older 161 and continue with the T/A type.

 

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Well it seems like their sales structure is really lacking, and finding info online about the products seems really hard, idk if it's just because it's a foreign company?

Yeah, some of the European companies puzzle me. Different way of doing business. And I was a technical salesman for many, many years.

My guess is that they call their local rep and things work out somehow. Ever try to find a particular equipment manual on their web site? I've managed a time or two, but it's a re-learning experience every time. I made an email inquiry (twice) about some older Allstate electrodes a couple months ago. Operators are NOT standing by. No one is home.

However, now ESAB is owned by an American company, so we'll see how it goes. COLFAX also bought the Victor companies, who seemed to be floundering as well.

 

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Meanwhile me and JW are Makin Money.

 

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...The TA came with better cables and electrode holder and the power cord is rubber instead of the hard plastic the ESAB came with...

The rubber in the TA units does smell better than the usual Chinese rubber. I'm not the only one who noticed that. Several people here took advantage of the closeout price on that TA and the Firepower equivalent.

The discontinued 161STL does have more TIG features, similar to the 201TS aside from HF start and output amperage.

I have noticed that UK prices on some of these small TA/ESAB boxes are low compared to here. But they tend to be single voltage (230) and may not have power factor correction.

 

[Oldendum]

2012: Thermadyne Holdings Corporation ... changed its name to Victor Technologies Group, Inc. and the name of its wholly owned subsidiary Thermadyne Industries, Inc. to Victor Technologies International, Inc.

They owned Victor®, Tweco®, Arcair®, Thermal Dynamics®, Thermal Arc®, Stoody®, TurboTorch®, Firepower® and Cigweld®. Then Colfax Corp. rolled them up with ESAB when they bought them. So you might get a 211i in purple, black or yellow depending on when it was purchased.

If you think that's confusing, you should read about all the mergers and acquisitions with the companies who produce industrial gasses.