Mention ‘Robotic Welding’ and the name Terry Rosenberg comes immediately to mind. Almost single-handedly he developed this specialised industry in South Africa. Sadly, Terry passed away in February 2024 after suffering through a debilitating illness.
Born in 1946 in Rosebank, Johannesburg, Rosenberg was schooled at Huguenot High School in Wellington, Western Cape where he completed his schooling in 1962. After school he did an apprenticeship at BMC and then worked at Rob Motors in their ‘Parts’ department before going into the army.
“I didn’t really have any direction in terms of a career but things changed quickly after my days in uniform,” said Terry in an interview in October 2011.
The change came in 1964 when he was asked by Arc Engineering in Cape Town to work for them. They were one of the ‘big three’ back then, along with Fed Gas and Afrox and Terry ended up working for them for almost 30 years.
Terry Rosenberg
From the beginning Terry was put through the mill working in almost every department. After a comprehensive training he was sent to Port Elizabeth as a welding rep and on to East London to manage the Eastern Cape border branch. This was his first management position and it lasted for more than 10 years.
Soon after he was transferred to head office in Johannesburg, where he worked in the technical sales department. Arc Engineering was sold to Barlows and, although he didn’t know it at the time, this deal was going to change Terry’s life rather drastically!
Terry was sent to the US to meet with Hobart Welders, a leading welding equipment manufacturer in the US. It just so happened that Hobart Welders were, at the time, concluding negotiations to become Yaskawa Motoman’s distributor in the US.
Terry was invited to dinner with the Hobart people one evening and the Yaskawa Motoman Japanese representatives were there at dinner as well. Terry got chatting to them and, well, the rest is history. And what a history! About a year later one of Arc’s clients saw a welding robot in America at a show and said he wanted one. The company wasn’t keen on becoming involved but Terry convinced them robotics was an important future niche. So they quoted the client, and brought in the welding robot. Although they knew nothing about the machine they read the manual, made some adjustments to the machine and delivered. Thus was born robotic welding in South Africa.
In the meantime, however, Barlows had sold Arc Welding to a division of GEC and Terry continued working for them and learning about the robotics industry. They never really saw the potential and robotics remained a peripheral activity in GEC’s Arc Welding. But Terry was convinced and in 1992 he bit the bullet and left Arc Welding and started his own business.
Financially Terry had nothing but his house and was brave enough to put it up as collateral for the banks when he opened Robotic Systems S.A.’s first back account.
“I may have had no money but I had burning ambition and plenty of encouragement, especially from my wife Marie who kept on reminding me that I had to do it. ‘What’s the worst that can happen if it fails? Having to find a new job, that’s all,’ she kept on saying. But she didn’t know about the house,” said Terry in the interview.
Terry said he was lucky that none of the big players saw robotic welding as their core business but, for him, it was. This gave him the edge and he negotiated excellent terms with Motoman and many of his early clients paid him upfront. This gave him the cash flow to not only survive but to grow the business.
The rest of the story is well known to the South African welding industry. Terry is the doyen of the robotic welding industry and Robotic Systems S.A. is a significant South African success story.
In 2011 Terry was awarded the SAIW’s highest award, the Gold Medal, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to both welding technology and the South African Institute of Welding. At that time Robotic Systems SA, had installed close to 2 000 robotic welding systems, and was the South African benchmark for this highly specialised field.
During the first quarter of 2012, a majority stake in Robotic Systems was acquired by Yaskawa Europe and the local entity was renamed Yaskawa Southern Africa. Terry was appointed Managing Director of the company in South Africa and he continued in the position until 2016 when he handed over to his son Kurt, who subsequently emigrated to Sweden. Terry would then take up the position of Chairman and would retire in February 2022 and sadly would succumb to his illness two years later.
Terry was a gentleman who always cared about the wellbeing of others. He was involved with a number of charities and community projects during his lifetime. He struggled with his health for many years but never gave up.
Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones. He leaves behind his wife Marie, son Kurt and daughter Juliet and their respective spouses and four grandsons.
