Sustainability at Fronius

We believe that sustainable products can only be produced by a company in which the concept of sustainability is firmly established in all areas. In line with the motto “Designed and produced with sustainability in mind”, not only do our products conserve resources, they also offer a long service life and ease of repair. We also attach great importance to the conscious use of materials and resources in production.

Wherever possible, we use recycled and reusable materials. When designing products, we ensure that components take up as little space and use as few resources as possible, and are easy to replace if required.

We always act with sustainability in mind, even when it comes to relationships. We have always sought to establish long-term partnerships with customers, partners, and employees. After all, they are the key to achieving our goal, which is to unleash our full welding potential and to do so in a way that conserves resources.

» We put the customer at the heart of everything we do and by maintaining this close relationship, we can find the right solution for any welding challenge. We stay in close contact in order to learn from each other. In addition to consistently high welding quality, we always make sure to keep our consumption of energy, gas and filler metal to a minimum. «

Harald Scherleitner, Global Director Perfect Welding

Interview: Can welding be sustainable, too?

Harald Scherleitner speaks to Metal Works TV: Due to the motto "Thougth sustainably, made sustainably", Fronius welding solutions are particularly resource-saving and are characterized by their durability and repairability.

Designed and produced with sustainability in mind

Sustainable production

We are committed to not only observing but exceeding environmental standards. Wherever possible, we do more than is required by legislation and this particularly applies to our plants, processes and sites.

The production sites in Austria are fully decarbonized, which means we use zero fossil fuels.
Ninety-five percent of the total energy required at all our production and sales locations in Austria comes from renewable energy sources (photovoltaics, biomass, geothermal energy, and purchased green electricity).
We source around 4,14 MWh* of energy from our own PV systems on our sites in Austria. (* As at 12/31/2023; our PV systems are constantly being expanded)
Compared to the previous year, scope 1 emissions fell 2023 by 55 %.
All production and sales sites in Austria have an environmental management system that is certified according to ISO 14001.
We place great emphasis on sustainable site development and increasing the energy efficiency of our buildings and processes.
New and existing suppliers are audited against a set of environmental and social criteria as part of our supplier management system.

Transport routes

As an international company, a significant proportion of our emissions is generated by the transport of goods. Our primary goal is to keep our transport routes short and to reduce our environmental footprint.

100% Austria-based assembly
Carbon reduced by 54% in logistics between 2020 and 2022
We use zero air freight within Europe / worldwide it is only 3%.
Business Trips: 75 % of the vehicle fleet is powered by alternative drive systems, including electric, hybrid and hydrogen drives.
More than 411 e-charging stations are available at Austrian sites.

Long service life and easy repair

Our personal claim is that our customers and partners can rely on the quality of our products. We are committed to our environment and society, and take active measures to counteract a throwaway society.

Fronius welding systems and welding torches are designed for a long service life.
We test more rigorously than the standard requires. This helps us to surpass the industry standard and improves reliability in use, even in adverse conditions.
We provide the best possible customer service through our global sales and service network.
Our welding systems can all be opened and repaired using commercially available tools. Our welding systems are maintained and repaired in the 4000 m² International Repair Center in Austria or in the 27 repair centers worldwide.

Video: Testing welding systems

The oldest welding system to be fully repaired in 2020 was 42 years old.

Smart product design: Innovative technologies

We are an innovation leader in arc welding and a global market leader in robot-assisted welding. We use ground-breaking technologies to create energy-efficient and resource-conserving connections that last.

Our intelligent welding systems are fit for the future, as they can be expanded with welding packages as required at any time.
Fronius multiprocess welding systems are highly flexible, because they combine three processes in one system.
With our welding data management and monitoring, it is very easy to analyze data and optimize welding processes in a way that saves resources, time and costs.
Thanks to intelligent control, our OPT/i gas controller reduces gas consumption by up to 40% compared to a standard gas valve.
Spatter is a waste of filler material and energy, costs money and necessitates reworking. We have developed processes, such as Cold Metal Transfer (CMT) and Low Spatter Control (LSC), that reduce spatter by up to 99%*.
We have reduced heat exposure by 70 °C by improving the design of our wear parts. This increases the service life of all wear parts inside the torch.
Our portfolio also includes intelligent occupational safety with optimum comfort. For the health and safety of welders, for example, we offer efficient mobile air filtration devices as well as modern helmet systems.

*compared with a standard short arc

Our commitment is tested and certified

Sustainability throughout the supply chain is becoming increasingly important to our customers. When it comes to meeting the standards required here, only verifiable facts count. It is for this reason that we regularly undergo external audits and certifications. This means that we can consistently advance our own aspiration to continuously improve, and document our commitment to sustainability.

Sustainability management system

To ensure that sustainability is firmly anchored in all areas of our business, we decided to introduce a Corporate Social Responsibility Management System (CSR) in line with ONR 192500 (based on ISO 26000), obtaining external certification in 2021. The three areas of action—people, planet and profit—are addressed as part of the CSR management system. Learn more

EcoVadis

In 2023, we were awarded the gold medal by EcoVadis, an independent ESG rating agency which has now established itself as one of the best-known platforms for assessing the sustainability of global supply chains.

NQC SupplierAssurance

The NQC SupplierAssurance platform is another external provider, which carries out sustainability assessments for well-known car manufacturers. NQC’s SAQ-5.0 rating is an evidence-based sustainability assessment designed to help objectively described the evidence and standards required in the supply chain.

We have again improved our rating compared to the previous year and achieved a B86 in the current rating from 2023. This puts us well above the industry average, which is at C.

Life cycle analysis LCA of the TPSi

The “Product Sustainability” team investigated how sustainable Fronius products actually are. The entire product life cycle from production to customer use to end-of-life of the high-performance TPSi welding system was examined.

Since every component and every welding application is individual and is influenced by many factors such as the base material, the seam geometry or the welding parameters used, we chose the viewing framework so that the results are clear and easy to understand.

We convert the CO2 share of the relevant parameters to 1 meter of weld seam, because this quickly shows where we have to start. For the CO2 share in use, we calculated the weld seams of a series-produced robot with a typical service life of 8 years. Real customer examples from an automotive supplier that uses the TPS 400i in its robot configuration for steel welding and those of a vehicle manufacturer that uses the TPS 320i for CMT welding, served as a basis for us.

In the described life cycle of a Fronius TPS/i welding system, only around 0.5% of the total CO2 equivalents are accounted for by the production of the welding machine as well as the repair and disposal of it. The rest is divided between the filler material used, the shielding gas and the energy used. It is therefore clear that these resources must be used efficiently.

Together with our customers, we now want to start where CO2 can be reduced and regularly publish technologies and tips to save additional shielding gas, filler wire and energy while maintaining high welding quality.