In 1919 engineer Carl Cloos laid the groundwork for a company which maintains the highest recognition in the metal working industry worldwide. Generally described as a company dealing with apparatus engineering, machining, metalworking, CLOOS concentrated in the beginning phase on the construction and manufacture of acetylene generators and autogenuous welding torches.

Soon, about 80 people were employed by the young company and first orders for exports into Russia, France and Switzerland indicated the growing success of the products. 

In the difficult years of the postwar period, a great deal of initiative and dedication was essential. After moving into the field of electric welding, the Company concentrated on the production of arc welding transformers with capacities ranging between 150 to 500 amps. They also built units for connecting to single phase and 3-phase electric supply.

A short time later, the production of welding rectifiers was started. This move had great effect on the future expansion of the company.

The decisive milestone in the development of the company was reached in the year 1956, when the new CO2 shielded arc welding power source type GLA 500 was introduced to the welding industry.' 

This power source, developed by Erwin Cloos, had the so-called internal control: By means of a constant wire feed, a continuous wire electrode is guided mechanically through the welding torch. The advancing wire is supplied with positive polarity within the arc and gas shield.

The better and substantially cheaper CO2 gas replaced the expensive shielding gas argon, which was commonly used at that time in externally controlled automatic welding machines. Thus, CLOOS offered a fundamental alternative to the already wellknown arc welding technique and laid the foundation for the modern MIG/MAG welding technique. This pioneering work attracted the collective attention of experts domestically and abroad.

These technological developments resulted in the following consequences: An active sales organization was established in order to generate the base for expansion in the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as in Europe. In the following period, CLOOS continued its successful business venture with more technical innovations:

In the early sixties, the first automatic welding machine for welding of railroad ties was supplied and several other mechanized large scale projects were undertaken, subsequently leading to the development of special purpose machines for longitudinal and circumferential welding.

The seventies began with the development of the first electronically controlled welding power sources, which since have been further developed into spatterfree transistorized pulsed arc power sources. 

These electronic power sources are a basic requirement for the flexible use of arc welding robots, whose development began shortly after. The first step towards this new era was to join an American manufacturer of handling robots utilizing their robot handling features for the execution specific welding tasks. 

The experiences gained in robot mechanics were integrated into CLOOS’ own production of ROMAT welding robots. 

In the beginning, a German engineering company provided the knowledge for the electronic control system, necessary for the functioning of the robots. However, it did not take long before Cloos developed and produced robot software - in accordance with the company’s philosophy to produce all essential components of a welding system in-house. 

The first unit to be produced was a welding robot with five axes and microprocessor control system. It was followed by the 6-axes ROMAT systems. 

Today, CLOOS produces a six axes robot arm, which can be extended to up to 12 axes by maintaining high flexibility, precision and various programming possibilities. 

Since the early nineties CLOOS has developed into a producer of high-tech turnkey welding and cutting systems. Robots with controllers, power sources and peripheral components like positioners, tools and safety equipment, master controller, sensors, and quality control systems are being supplied and maintained by this one source.