Milwaukee Tool is finally launching an MX FUEL cordless Electrofusion Processor, model MXF545-XC.
The Milwaukee MX Fuel electrofusion processor can be used to fuse up to 8″ couplings and 12″ saddles.
It features 15ft leads and a wireless barcode scanner, and as it’s battery-powered there’s no need to first set up a generator or extension cords.
Advertisement
Milwaukee says it’s up to 40% lighter, presumably compared to existing AC-powered solutions.
This is just an early teaser – more details and application images will be available when the tool is closer to launch.
What is an Electrofusion Processor??
I could be completely wrong, but it’s my understanding that electrofusion is used for joining long sections of plastic pipe.
To put it simply, electrofusion welding uses a heating coil to melt larger sized plastic pipes and components together.
There are also welding processes for metal pipes, but I’m going to assume this is basically a specialized cordless battery-powered plastic pipe fusing machine designed to replace AC-powered electric models.
Looking into electrofusion processors, other models also have barcode scanners for quickly setting operational parameters. This is a standard practice, and one that makes sense as pipes and couplings can be different sizes or made from different materials.
Advertisement
There could be other factors that the optimal application settings could depend on, but I’m not very familiar with this product category and couldn’t tell you what those other factors might be.
As mentioned, this can be used for couplings up to 8″ and saddles up to 12″.
The Plastics Pipe Institute has a primer on HDPE electrofusion welding, and it includes a great visual example of how electrofusion processors are used with pipes and couplers.
Even if the PPI example isn’t perfectly fitting, the visual seems close enough to get everyone up to speed.
Discussion
The new Milwaukee electrofusion processor seems like a great example of how the MX Fuel platform is serving very different tool needs than the brand’s M18 cordless power tool line.
Looking online, electrofusion processors look to be bulky and difficult to transport, with quite a few packaged inside of off-the-shelf Pelican cases and similar.
Milwaukee’s isn’t the first battery-powered solution, but it looks to be more cohesive than the others I’m seeing.
More details are forthcoming, let me know if you have any questions. As a reminder, this type of equipment is beyond my typical comfort zone, and so it might take me some time to get and understand the answers.
Jared
Will it process garbage scraps to produce 1.21 gigawatts for my flux capacitor?
I had no idea what an “Electrofusion Processor” was until I read it here, but I was hoping “Mr. Fusion” had finally arrived.
Stuart
When I first saw what it was called, the name took me back to grad school when we were talking about how research professors all gave themselves fancy titles.
But apparently “electrofusion processor” is the common name for this. It took me a moment to connect the name to what this is and what I understood it to do.
Rob
Electrofusion is usually used for chemical waste drainage piping. Very commonly seen in pharmaceutical labs where the waste water contains levels of a chemical or are to acidic to drain to the sewer. The waste is usually treated in house and is either neutralized and/or diluted to a level where it can be safely drained to the sewer. The 2 largest manufacturers of these types of piping systems are Georg Fischer (Fuseal) and Enfield (Enfusion). My biggest question is which system will this unit work with? They both use different leads and have specific units designed to work with their fittings. The leads from the fusion machine connect to the fitting and send a current through a coil that is located on the inside edge of the fittings make-in where the pipe is inserted. When the correct amount of current is sent through the coil, the pipe and hub are fused together (pretty much melted together) in order to make a water tight seal.
Jack
Electrofusion is also used in the natural gas industry.
Brian
Even if they did make this for use with GF or Enfield which I doubt they will neither manufacturer would honor the warranty. Their systems, joining procedures and fusion parameters are proprietary. It’s the same for IR Fusion and even though you can use a GF IR63 to fuse Asahi fittings neither will honor the warranty if there is a failure. Ask me how I know lol.
This Milwaukee tool would likely only be used for water piping for irrigation or something else not in Semi or Biopharm. The stakes are way to high for an oops.
My 2 cents.
Stuart
We’ll have answers to that once the tool gets closer to launch.
Milwaukee *has* worked with fitting manufacturers in the past, such as Uponor when developing their ProPEX expansion tools. But if fusion fitting brands require you to use their own tools as part of their warranty terms and conditions, then you’d be right to be hesitant.
Allen Seebeck
Well there are many more EF manufacturers out there besides the two you mention . And waste is not the only thing nor natural gas. Water , hydronics , chemicals, potable and hot domestic water, compressed air , cable and fiber optic conduit, and others.
It most likely will not work with certain GF or Orion systems since theirs are proprietary.
Electrofusion is part of the international barcode system which means this unit should or is supposed be designed to fuse all domestic and foreign barcoding on any manufactured product. But tip differences can be the overall issue.
Justin
I read the first part of this article and thought “Oh, so it’s just like a retro encabulator.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJKdh1KZ0w
Bonnie
Glad I wasn’t the only one to go there immediately.
MFC
Those Ambiphasient Lunar Wainshafts caused some serious side fumbling before they figured it out.
HTG
Yeah! The fact it claims to have a base of prefamulated amulite was what made make the analogy. And I’ve never seen Tremmie pipes wound up like on the left of the picture. That’s clever. It must reduce the sinusoidal depleneration by a large margin.
Chris
😂😂😂😂 I thought the EXACT same thing!!
ToolGuyDan
Also a member of the “hoping it was a Mr. Fusion” club. (Fun fact; it was made from a coffee grinder. As a result, that particular model of vintage coffee grinder—despite not being especially good at grinding coffee—is nigh-unattainable and astronomically priced.)
Anyway, gotta admit, your lede of “Milwaukee is FINALLY launching [an] electrofusion processor” led me to wondering if I’d missed the memo on that being a part of every competent wrench-turner’s accessory kit nowadays. Relieved to know it’s a specialty tool, so I don’t have to rush out and buy one—or two, in case the first one is on loan and I need one in a hurry. Reading your website’s already expensive enough as it is! 🤣
Nathan
Thought we went back to April 1st there for a moment. Interesting idea wonder how much power that requires per joint?
Scott K
Posts like this are one of the many things I love about this site. Not only did I not know this type of tool existed, but a bit of googling led me to a brief overview of why it exists – pretty cool. I was surprised to learn that HDPE doesn’t release toxic fumes when melted.
Travis
Totally agree! Always learning new things when I visit. Sent me down a rabbit hole for 45 minutes!
Stuart
Thanks, I’m glad to hear it! I weighed whether to wait for more info and application images, and am glad I didn’t.
Tdot77
It’s only potentially dangerous in the state of California! ;-} Lol
Jp
I want a backpack blower y
That actually works on an mx fuel battery. All the 18-volt crap stinks. This is cool but I don’t need no electrofusion stuff
jake
Stuart, thank you for the electrofusion processor post. Interesting…
Related to Jp’s wish, have you heard anything that may help estimate when the MXF600-0 MX FUEL Backpack Blower shown on the Milwaukee site may be available?
Stuart
Sorry, I don’t have any info about the MX Fuel blower. I can’t find a PR in my inbox, and so it’s likely a couple of months out.
Jason
I got excited but looks like my core drill batteries would power it for a whopping 5 minutes if my math checks out
Nick Preradovic
I would like to know is well how long battery lasts cause I use it all day
Bill
Take a look at the Ego backpack leaf blowers. They offer two different versions, with one rated at 600 cfm and a commercial version rated at 800 cfm. Both units operate off of their 56 volt batteries. I don’t own any of their backpack versions, but I do have several of their hand held blowers and I’ve been pleased with the performance and run time.
MatW
I have seen a geothermal contractor use an electro fusion processor machine on a job i was on once when the traditional “hot iron” plate wouldn’t fit in the last section of a header in a mechanical closet. My understanding was that the coupling itself has a heating element in it (sounds expensive) the he used the scanner to scan the bar code, witch inturn set the machine to the correct power level and run time. Seemed extremely easier but alot more expensive
Josh
I see a lot of people had no idea what this was…..and understandably so. It’s been out for a while, but is still fairly new to the profession as it’s just now starting to catch on. In the last 3 years we’ve probably fused somewhere along the line of 43,000 ft of HDPE. Most of which is much bigger than 8″, but we are doing our fair share of 6″-8″ for Metropolitan Utilities District as we are contracted to eventually swap all ductile iron for HDPE. This would be incredibly convenient instead of dragging our 1 ton generator around to a hundred different holes throughout neighborhoods.
Stuart
Thank you for the info and insights!
Stuart_T
I had not heard this term but I think they use something similar for joining/fusing long lengths of plastic pipe used in geothermal heating. Not sure about vertical bore but certainly in horizontal installations. Has to be sealed and tested before it’s covered up.
fred
This is tooling that will be of interest for Gas Utilities where plastic has been replacing metallic (cast iron and steel mains and services.)
eddiesky
I think Stuart should add more links “The more you know…!” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDPE_pipe#/media/File:Electrofusion_Welding_of_HDPE_Pipe.jpg
Scott ALKB
I’m smirking at the “butt wipes” there in the background.
Kingsley
I actually write software for apps that control and monitor electrofusion machines in the UK.
I’d be interested to know if it has Bluetooth as this is how the app that I work on controls and monitors the process.
It’s vital that the pipe is properly prepared. It has to be properly scraped, to remove oxidisation, cleaned and then clamped in place.
The app that I work on actually takes a photograph to verify the process and it’s then looked at by a person remotly or AI to check it’s all been done to spec. They can’t actually proceed with the weld until the app says it’s OK to do so.
The consequences for getting it wrong aren’t just that it’s likely to leak water down the line (even after pressure testing) but are deadly in the case of gas.
Stuart
Thanks for the great question and for the background behind it! There’s no mention of an app, but as mentioned full details aren’t out yet. I’ll add this to my list of questions. If the PR doesn’t address it, I’ll ask for a product manager to chime in.
Kingsley
The other type of welding machine, for larger pipes is hilariously called “butt welding”. This uses a hotplate between the pipes that is applied for a certain amount of time, then removed.
We make a machine “BDi” that checks the bead that is produced afterwards for splits. This helps indicate if the weld has been successful. There’s an app for it too to log all this for record keeping.
We also make apps for monitoring digital torque wrenches and guns that are used on mechanical fixings on gas and water flanges. Milwaukee make a digital Bluetooth torque wrench and I’ve been itching to get my hands on it to add it to our app too. Although it doesn’t have an open API for connecting to it.
Josh
Another highly priced, highly specialized tool that only like 5 people will buy.
fred
You’re correct in that this is not as multi-useful as most other power tools (drills, saws, etc.) But there are more than 189million natural gas consumers in the US – being served by something like 1000 companies – with even more subcontractors installing and servicing pipelines. I guess Milwaukee felt that this was enough of a potential market. Specialized tools will naturally command prices that would make most of us choke – but if they speed up work, enhance safety or productivity – it may sell to companies that need them.
Kingsley
The company I work for monitors and logs 6000 welds every day in the UK and not every gas and water company uses us. For medium to large HDPE pipe it’s an essential bit of kit.
Jon
We use electrofusion every once in a while. Mostly for sewer forcemain under roads/highways. It’s great for areas that are environmentally sensitive as well. It’s kind of a “guaranteed leakproof” joint.
It in a way joins two pipes together to make one continuous piece of plastic pipe.
Most natural gas lines are this type of pipe, and are joined in this way or similar.
Jon
This is pretty interesting. I design, oversee construction and maintenance of HDPE water (primarily SDR9 and 11, including double contained) systems. While we design and plan to use butt fusion almost exclusively, we end up needing electrofusion fairly frequently during upgrades, expansions, or the infrequent repair. As you get above about 4″ HDPE it’s very challenging to make repairs or install tees without using electrofusion. The need for electrofusion on my projects is limited enough that we usually just rent machines for a couple days but I could see a use case for this, certainly more compact without the need for a generator and could have made our installs easier during repairs in structures without active electrical supplies (rare but not unheard of).
Darryl
This is a tool that will be extremely convenient for municipalities for sewer/ water as well as gas utilities. Electrofusion is not really designed for new installations but more for emergency repairs. So much easier than getting regular fusion equipment down in a trench especially when other infrastructure obstacles are present, which is usually where these type of repairs are needed.
Drew
I am a fuser/welder for a natural gas company. We fuse anywhere from 5/8” plastic (like the service to a house) to 18” plastic (a gas main). This would be pretty useful for the small stuff but I can’t imagine the. Battery would last very long after a couple 8” fuses or a 12 inch saddle. Also the fusion processors need to be recalibrated every couple of years
Alexk
Thanks for picking this equipment and topic. I learnt some new things (that I’ll probably never use), and read some great comments, especially those from people who do this work.
Tim Terry
This type of fusing of Natural gas pipe for gas services and gas mains has been used for at least 20 years. After using it in the field for years I also became a Technical Trainer for my employer a large Gas company. There are different brands of electrofusion processors, and the computer on board will pick how long each coupling, or tee needs melted by scanning a barcode on each individual piece being fused. There is a wire that is molded inside the coupling that melts and fuses the 2 plastics together. There is also a cooling time for each before being able to move the pipe. Hope that helps.
A2Z
I second Alexk above – interesting new information with no practical relevance to me but always curious to learn about how things work.
Nate
This is wild, fiber optic cables have been joined by fusion splicing, which is very similar, for at least 30 years. I had no idea the process could be used for hollow pipe too!
Fiber fusion splicers actually use a tiny electric arc between pointed electrodes, which heats the faces of the glass fibers, which a precision motion stage then kisses together just as the arc extinguishes. Then a sleeve of heatshrink (you DID remember to slip the heatshink onto one of the fibers first, right?) goes into the heater to stabilize the joint while you prepare and splice the next fibers.
Repeat 144 times for a good-sized cable…
And those splicer machines have notoriously stupid batteries. The manufacturer will go out of business or just discontinue the product line, and they become unobtainable even though the rest of the machine is fine, so you’ll see techs in the field that’ve modded theirs to take power-tool batteries…
Joe H
I wonder if Milwaukee will release a small portable welder using their Redlithium Forge batteries for emergency repairs in the field or when it’s difficult to get a welder to a location due to terrain. There already does exist small portable battery powered welders for light duty applications.
Stuart
In the meantime, could portable welders be connected to their various portable power stations?
MM
You could plug an AC-powered welder into one of their power stations, but that would be quite limited in capacity. 110V welders are very much on the light duty side. But if the welder could run directly off the batteries instead of having the bottleneck of converting to 110vac then it could be a lot more capable.
ESAB makes a welder that runs on Dewalt Flexvolt batteries. I’m sure it is possible for something similar to run on MX Fuel batteries.
Joe H
If Milwaukee Redlithium Forge batteries can power a welder in a backpack like set up, it would make it easy for a guy to be able to get into a bucket of a bucket truck to get up high to weld something or to get to harder to access spots.
Stuart
https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/dewalt-flexvolt-cordless-welder-esab/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
There was an older one too. Both Dewalt welders were partnerships with other brands.
I’m sure Milwaukee has been exploring this space, but I have doubts that it would fit their cordless strategy. What’s the market size for cordless battery-powered welders?
Joe H
A lot of heavy equipment mechanics will have a big welder on the back of their utility truck but sometimes when it’s a muddy jobsite or some farmer’s equipment broke in the middle of a wet field, the utility truck isn’t going to be able to get in close unless it has 4×4 or 6×6 and has big enough tires that are compliant enough to air down enough to not sink in the soft stuff. Also if a metal structure fails or needs repair, often those repairs have to happen in awkward spots on site. It’s not a relatively huge market of users but the question would be whether it’s enough justify the R&D and production.