Using PTC engineering software, Fronius International has brought to market the first manual arc welder that runs from a rechargeable battery.

Electrical products manufacturer Fronius is gaining a reputation as an innovator. Recently the Austrian manufacturer introduced a line of electrical inverters that offer new convenience in storing and reusing renewable energy. Now they have come up with the first manual metal arc welder (MMA welder) that runs off a rechargeable battery.

The Fronius AccuPocket 150/400 weighs an easy-to-carry 11 kg (24 lbs.) and works for both manual electrode and TIG welding. What would you do with a small cordless welder? There are plenty of situations where arc welding is needed far from a power outlet, like logging machinery or mining operations. Fronius has been innovating welding equipment since the 1950s, and has collected many awards for everything from its use of fuzzy technology to laser hybrid systems. All together, the company holds 864 active patents—just on the welding side of the business. The AccuPocket follows in this award-winning tradition, having received both the Red Design Award and the Plus X Award for product design. Fronius uses PTC Creo Parametric for all its product design and engineering, including assembly and surface design, tooling and factory equipment design, and 3D virtual prototyping. The company also uses PTC Windchill PDMLink to organize and share CAD data throughout the organization, from a service center in São Paolo to a solar energy branch in Melbourne. “PTC Windchill PDMLink gives us the opportunity to provide one single point of truth for the complete product definition,” says Wolfgang Zauner, product manager. “This information enables us to share the necessary information with all international sites.”