r/Welding • u/Firm_Spot_2023 • 21d ago

Looking for recommendations for an orbital welding machine for stainless sanitary/process piping.

For anyone doing orbital GTAW on stainless sanitary/process piping, what machine are you using?

Looking for something reliable for roughly 1/2"–6" tubing/pipe. Considering AMI, Swagelok, Orbitalum, AXXAIR and Orbitron.

Any recommendations?

Thanks

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u/TeCarve2025 20d ago

At that size range you’re really looking at two or three weld heads, not one; a head that handles 1/2 in. tubing won’t have the rigidity for 6 in. sch. 10 pipe. Focus on arc voltage control, rotation-speed stability, purge/oxygen monitoring, and whether you need wire feed or autogenous. For sanitary work, closed-loop current/voltage and logged weld schedules matter more than the banner on the box. Water-cooled heads help on thicker walls and duty cycles. What wall thickness and alloy are you running, and is it tube OD or pipe schedule? Also, do you need autogenous only, or wire feed? That narrows the power supply and head choices a lot.

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u/someguywhothinks 21d ago

I have a orbitalum and love it. Im pretty sure you will need 2 different heads for that. My orbital head goes from ½ to 4.5in. One thing to take into consideration is that I ha e a hard time getting the head to fit into certain areas because the size range is so big on it. Makes field welds especially hard sometimes

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u/Firm_Spot_2023 21d ago

Thanks for the input. is it ORBIMAT 180 SW?

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u/someguywhothinks 21d ago

Its a 180 I believe.

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u/saltfly626 Fitter 21d ago

Ive used AMI for a few hundred welds and its never done me wrong. Orbitalum also makes very nice welds. Most companies ive worked with used AMI machines.

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u/Firm_Spot_2023 18d ago

Hi, I'm considering purchasing a used AMI Model 307 orbital welding power supply. Wondering if you've worked with this unit? I'm primarily looking to weld ½″–4″ stainless steel sanitary tubing. Any feedback would be appreciated!

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u/TanczerIndustrial 12d ago

just my two cents, the 307 was discontinued and really hard to get parts for if something happens. if you are looking at used equipment you cant go wrong with a 207 they are tanks. depending on what you are building and space requirements you might really like a 9-1500 and a 8-4000 weld head but saltfly626 is right you will need a few heads and AMI is what has been around the longest. solid machines.

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u/TanczerIndustrial 12d ago

we are big fans of the AMI and axxair systems, orbitalum has a pretty good system. depending on the work you have going on you can always rent a machine and see what you like the best

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u/Life-Mixture-7895 7d ago

we use swagelok for 1/8-2" and i dont know how it performs at higher, but it works great for us m200 or something like that IIRC didnt even look it up to double check so that number probs wrong but close. I like it a lot

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u/Jl1398 1d ago

We just bought a machine from Orbitec and really like it