Paul Cheng built his career in offshore oil and gas before turning to one of welding's hardest problems: joining metal without melting it. His company, FuseRing, uses induction heating and kinetic energy to fuse pipe, tubing and plate in a solid state, eliminating filler, fumes and heat-affected zones. The Ontario-based technology has drawn interest from nuclear, submarine and pipeline sectors internationally. Below, Cheng talks candidly about the rejections, the reversals and the moment that changed his read on the market entirely.
HOW DID YOU START OUT IN THIS INDUSTRY AND HOW HAS IT BROUGHT YOU TO WHERE YOU ARE TODAY?
Our original target customers were pipeline and nuclear. But at a U.K. nuclear conference in March 2020, sponsored by OCNI, I met my U.K. counterpart in welding. His opening remark was that he'd been about to tell me they had the most advanced welding technology in the world, until he saw my sample weld. He was generous with the compliment, in public. We talked about welding issues for nuclear and submarine applications. After I returned to Canada, I contacted the American Navy's Submarine Group, and the executive director invited me to join the Naval Submarine League. I took part in unclassified sessions in Virginia and attended events at the Army Navy Country Club. At the same time, I reached out to the Canadian Navy but couldn't get a return call. We kept going anyway. I continued filing IPs and contracted Sorsys Technologies to build our first three demo units, and brought in advisors including Dr. Adrian Gerlich of the University of Waterloo and Walt Sperko of Sperko Engineering. We're pushing the frontier of new science independently, and the reception is getting friendlier. We're now engaging with industry at the senior level.
WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AT YOUR ORGANIZATION TODAY?
Guidance. After watching startups where founders insist on doing everything themselves, I decided we'd have a clear division of duties: science, sales, management. Finding the right people is key. Another decision point was whether to own 100 per cent of nothing or a percentage of a revenue-producing company. I've met people who insist on controlling everything: information, technology, revenue. If the technology is revolutionary and sound, there's more than enough to share. Why hoard it all? Concentrate on growing the pie, which means sharing the responsibility and the rewards too.
WHAT WAS YOUR MOST CHALLENGING MOMENT?
Two moments stand out. In 2019, after my second patent was granted, I presented to Lincoln Electric's head office in Cleveland, outlining the advantages of the technology and how it would eliminate many of welding's longstanding issues. After 45 minutes, the VPs thanked me for the presentation and wished me bad luck. One of them told me they buy startups after they go broke all the time. I was on my way to present to ASME in Baltimore, and that comment took a while to sink in. I sold everything to focus on this one technology. The second was presenting alongside my friend and colleague Paul Zegwaard to the Belgium Welding Institute in Ghent in 2022, with a guest from Denys in the room. He was asking all the right questions, and we sold our hearts out because it felt like we'd found a natural partner. At the end of the presentation, he stood up and told us our patent was USPTO-only, and that they operated in Europe and Africa. Thank you, goodbye.
WHAT WAS YOUR A-HA MOMENT OR EPIPHANY THAT YOU THINK WILL RESONATE MOST WITH OUR READERS?
It happened at Bruce Power's Supplier Day in Kincardine, Ont. An engineer there told me I had my market backwards, that the real opportunity was under two inches, not the large-diameter pipe I'd come from in oil and gas. I didn't believe him. Everything I'd worked on in that industry was big and heavy. It took years to sink in. We exhibited at FabTech Chicago in September 2025, showing our Demo #2, a 12-millimetre zirconium tube with a half-millimetre wall. The equipment was portable and easy to demonstrate, and my intention was to draw people toward the bigger pipe. Instead, most of the questions were about small-diameter work; almost no one looked at the large pipe. That's when I started looking seriously at the limitations of orbital welders.
WHAT IS THE ONE THING THAT HAS YOU MOST FIRED UP TODAY?
Now that we know the science is valid, with a real probability of commercial revenue, the thinking is longer-term: building the team, and building continuity.
WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU'VE RECEIVED?
I was working offshore on Lake Erie, running around exhausted, not getting much sleep, yelling and screaming to get things done. My superintendent, an old rig hand, flew in from Calgary and stayed with me for a night on the drilling barge. Before he left my office, he said one word: focus. It took a while to sink in, but I learned it.
WHAT IS A HABIT THAT CONTRIBUTES TO YOUR SUCCESS?
Dedication.
WHAT IS YOUR PARTING PIECE OF ADVICE?
Do what you love and have fun. Treat your fellow workers with sincere respect. Push them to the limit, let them fail, and encourage them forward. Share the credit. Never be scared to try new things. One afternoon, I got a call from our engineer. He sounded somber and said he had good news and bad news. I asked for the bad news first: he'd broken the equipment. The good news: we'd achieved this level of quality. Hallelujah.
WHAT PEOPLE OR ORGANIZATIONS DO YOU BELIEVE BEST EMBODY THE INNOVATION MINDSET?
Many people claim to be innovative. Very few actually are, extremely few. But the rare few we've connected with more than make up for the naysayers.
HOW IS YOUR ORGANIZATION CHANGING THE INDUSTRY?
We're revolutionizing how metals are joined by eliminating filler materials, the welder shortage through automation, and uncertainty through real-time visual inspection.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST IMPEDIMENTS TO INNOVATION IN YOUR INDUSTRY SECTOR?
PhDs, VPs of innovation, established institutions, and the "we have X years of experience" mindset. Everyone points to their certifications and qualifications as proof they've already solved the problem.
HOW HAS INNOVATION BECOME INGRAINED IN YOUR ORGANIZATION'S CULTURE, AND HOW IS IT BEING OPTIMIZED?
We're at the frontier of new science. Every new geometry we join is a milestone. Our first three demo units were all one-of-a-kind builds, and everything was a best guess at first. Demo #1 took months and several hundred attempts before we had evidence of bonding; we've since joined more than 800 pipes with a much better handle on quality. Demo #2 failed 39 times in a row before joint #40 bonded zirconium to zirconium below the melting point. Demo #3's first sample melted everything, but by weld #3, we'd joined two steel plates below the melting point in seconds, though the plates hadn't lined up as designed. We adjusted the equipment parameters, and weld #4 came out with a smooth profile and exact alignment. We've learned the variables for each geometry and material grade, and we're now planning our first commercial unit, armed with far better data to optimize against.
WHAT TECHNOLOGIES, BUSINESS MODELS AND TRENDS WILL DRIVE THE BIGGEST CHANGES IN YOUR INDUSTRY OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS?
Manpower isn't the real issue, whatever traditional industry claims. If we just had more welders, the thinking goes, the problems would solve themselves. They wouldn't. The two biggest hurdles in welding are uncertainty of quality and rework. FuseRing addresses both because the technique is modular: the same geometry needs identical power, forge and shear settings anywhere in the world, under any conditions, regardless of the welder's skill level or qualifications. Weld integrity is documented electronically in real time, so a job site and head office can both monitor and witness a weld as it happens. If it falls inside the defined parameters, the weld is good. If it falls outside them, for any reason (a power fluctuation, a coil failure), the industry can determine the weld needs rework without anyone even seeing it. That's true automation, and the whole process can be run start to finish using AI.
