Buster Boats

The future of power boating

World-class aluminum welding precision with Kemppi X8 MIG Welder

A well-known aluminum boat manufacturer and a market leader in its industry, Buster Boats turned to the X8 MIG Welder to bring demanding aluminum welding to new heights with supreme usability and great performance.

Buster Boats are manufactured at the Inha Works located in Ähtäri, Southern Ostrobothnia region of Finland. The boat range varies from four meters to over nine meters, from 2 horsepower up to even 700 horsepower. The key to success at Buster Boats is based on good quality as well as strong product development and R&D. The Inha Works employs about 150 persons, of which 30 are welders.

Durability, safety and ease of use were taken as the starting points when designing the new boat range already in 1976. Through the years, almost 125,000 Buster Boats have been manufactured for satisfied boaters around the world. Buster is trusted by both recreational and professional users. Buster Boats was recently sold to Yamaha Motor Europe and the company has a bright future ahead.

Buster Boats
Website
Industry
Boatbuilding
Location
Ähtäri, Finland
Kemppi's solution
Base material
Al
X8 MIG Welder is a first-class equipment for demanding, high-quality aluminum welding in terms of both from the arc performance and usability point of view.

Kimmo Multaniemi, Manager, Production Ähtäri, Buster Boats

Main challenge

“Welding aluminum is quite demanding, and this calls for first-class welding machines. Also, all welders must be trained for the job and their qualifications are regularly controlled. We have daily quality controls and an inspection record is made of each boat,” says foreman of boat manufacturing Kimmo Multaniemi. Even though manual welding cannot be made much faster, Buster Boats highly appreciates usability that also helps to save time: even one minute per boat can lead to 2,000 minutes less production time in one year. Buster Boats has analyzed all products and tasks to the point that the workers know to the minute how much time they can spend for each operation.

Kemppi's solution

Buster Boats was among the first Kemppi partners to test the new X8 MIG Welder – and to bring it into play. The joint R&D with partners is pivotal for Buster Boats. “That benefits both of us,” Multaniemi says. “Our cooperation with Kemppi goes a long way back and this is why we have decided to continue on this path. Kemppi has been a good supplier for us because we have also been able to participate in the R&D of new products. We want to do R&D with Kemppi to have even better machines,” Multaniemi adds. Multaniemi also values the meaning of new innovations for the welders. “I’ve always lived by the philosophy that the easier it is for my welders to work here, the easier it makes my work for me.”

X8 MIG Welder stands for welding comfort with great arc performance, and it’s extremely suitable for challenging aluminum welding. X8 MIG Welder redefines ergonomics in the welder’s most important tool, welding guns: the hand grip, mobility and stability have been optimized to meet the requirements of the most demanding welding tasks.

“The welding gun is really good. It feels better than the previous one,” welder for Buster Boats Kari Urrila comments on his first experiences with the X8 MIG Welder. Urrila has also been impressed about the X8 Wire Feeder. “The wire feeder is really good. It’s placed lower than in the previous models and it’s neater to insert the wire into the feeder.”

Read the full story

Buster Boats

Featured solutions


Flexlite GX

Flexlite GX product series contains welding guns to be used in MIG/MAG welding proces...

Flexlite GX product series contains welding guns to be used in MIG/MAG welding processes. All Flexlite GX welding guns enjoy the Flexlite features for user comfort, welding efficiency and extended consumable parts life. The GX family includes a wide range of welding gun models designed to serve specific welding needs.


X8 MIG Welder

Advanced system equipment for demanding industrial MIG/MAG welding with an upgradeabl...

Advanced system equipment for demanding industrial MIG/MAG welding with an upgradeable power source up to 600 A.

The X8 MIG Welder is a multi-process welding solution that redefines welding performance and usability. It includes a digital WPS feature.

The forerunner of arc welding

Kemppi is the design leader of the arc welding industry. We are committed to boosting the quality and productivity of welding by continuous development of the welding arc and by working for greener and more equal world. Kemppi supplies sustainable products, digital solutions, and services for professionals from industrial welding companies to single contractors. The usability and reliability of our products is our guiding principle. We operate with a highly skilled partner network covering over 70 countries to make its expertise locally available. Headquartered in Lahti, Finland, Kemppi employs close to 800 professionals in 16 countries and has a revenue of 195 MEUR in 2022.

Kemppi – Designed for welders

Close

Technical specifications