Victor Technologies has officially unveiled its West Lebanon (NH) Design Center, a facility dedicated to innovation in plasma cutting and arc welding technologies. The center encompasses 50,000 square feet and employs about 75 people.
The facility is equipped with a state-of-the-art plasma process research and development laboratory, an applications laboratory, a classroom, a demonstration facility with cutting tables for hands-on training of customers and employees, a global technical support and service center, and pilot production lines for new products.
Dr James Browning founded Thermal Dynamics in 1957, originally locating the company in Lebanon NH and eventually moving to its current location at 82 Benning Street in West Lebanon in 1967. The former Dartmouth professor developed the modern plasma cutting electrode and the dual-flow gas process. Although these innovations occurred more than 50 years ago, Browning’s vision still forms the basis for the technologies used in today’s automated plasma cutting systems.
As for manual plasma cutting systems, Thermal Dynamics introduced the first air plasma cutter to use single-phase primary power in the early 1980s. These products set the standard for portable plasma cutters used by millions of fabrication shops, auto repair facilities, mechanical contractors, construction companies, artists, and maintenance/repair specialists. ♦