Laurie Jarvis

Laurie’s professional association with welding technology began when he joined the CSIRO’s then Department of Manufacturing Technology at Woodville, South Australia. During his time there he was involved in and led research into a variety of welding technologies including submerged arc, robotic deployment of gas metal arc, gas tungsten arc, and laser welding.

He, along with Ken Barton, invented and developed the process known as keyhole TIG welding. Another of his research interests was the problem of welding in magnetic fields. Laurie remained with CSIRO until the Woodville laboratories were closed and consolidated in Melbourne in early 2007.

On leaving CSIRO Laurie founded his own company, ‘Ultratig’, which further developed the keyhole welding technology. Following this he co-founded the company Keyhole Tig Limited, which went on to sell keyhole welding systems in many countries around the world. More recently, Keyhole TIG has acquired an innovative US company and is now known as Metal Powder Works.

Laurie left Keyhole TIG Limited in 2015, after which he worked in a consulting capacity for some time. He now considers himself retired, but still keen to take on new challenges.