The International Exhibition for welding, cutting and related technologies has been taking place in St. Petersburg since 1969. It is one of the leading events in the industry, where world and Russian manufacturers of welding equipment and materials come to show the full line of their innovations as regards to welding technologies.
The very first Svarka/Welding Exhibition took place in St. Petersburg Harbor in 1969 and continued for 10 days. Flags of 7 countries fluttered in the wind: Austria, Poland, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Japan. That year, the exposition included 16 foreign companies and was attended by 15 thousand representatives of Soviet enterprises.
In the 80s and the 90s, the novelties brought to the Harbor-based exhibition were covered by all the local newspapers: Leningradskaya Pravda (The Leningrad Truth), Smena (The New Generation), Vecherny Leningrad (The Evening Leningrad), Vecherny Peterburg (The Evening Petersburg), and Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti (The St. Petersburg Gazette).
By 2004, the number of Exhibition participants reached 200+ companies.
In 2012, Svarka/Welding Exhibition was participated by companies from 13 countries: Russia, Austria, Belarus, Hungary, Germany, Ukraine, Finland, France, Italy, China, USA, Czechia, and Switzerland. Over 25% of the exponents were from abroad. Many companies joined the event, including Engineering and Technology Service Scientific and Production Firm, Technotron, Uraltermosvar, ESAB, SovPlym, Ryazan State Instrument-making Enterprise, Lincoln Electric, POLYSOUDE, Abicor Binzel Welding Equipment, Losinoostrovsky Electrode Plant, Pemamek, etc. Germany and China arranged their national stands.
An important aspect discussed at Svarka/Welding Exhibition in 2014 was introduction of innovations at the welding production sites used by the fuel and energy industry. During the State-of-the-Art Welding Technologies, Equipment, and Materials for Construction and Repair of Major and Field Pipelines scientific-practical conference, top welding experts of Gazprom Group shared their experience associated with introduction of advanced welding technologies, methods aimed to explore structure and properties of welded joints, as well as to insure quality in welding works during construction of major gas pipelines, and innovative training methods.
In 2017, the Exhibition once again included first-time demonstrations of various welding technologies. For the first time ever worldwide, the exposition included the main highlight of 2017 designed by UTS Integration Scientific and Production Company. They brought a serial self-propelled laser welding machine SALS-1, which was capable of solving production tasks during construction of routes and trunks for the oil and gas companies. That was a unique Russian-made technology for large diameter pipe welding, based on fiber-optics lasers, with no equivalents across the globe.
Arranged in Expoforum Convention and Exhibition Centre, in 2023 Svarka/Welding Exhibition brought together world’s leaders and top welding equipment makers. As before, there were the most recent accomplishments of the year demonstrated and the most pressing matters discussed. The event was participated by specialists from Gazprom Group. The traditional partner of the Exhibition, Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society (CMES), arranged a national Chinese pavilion, where hi-tech welding equipment was displayed.
