Welding & Gas
Gases & Welding Supplies 2026: Branch Density Wins, Digital Lags
Eighteen gas and welding distributors ranked and scored. F.W. Webb outscores Fastenal and Airgas on digital readiness despite a fraction of their revenue.
← All posts
Industry
Welding & Gas
Welding, cutting, and gas product data — consumables and equipment matched by process and material.
Welding & Gas
Charbone: The Hydrogen Startup That Became a Gas Distributor
Charbone set out to make clean hydrogen in Quebec. A global helium shock turned it into a welding-gas distributor on MDM's 2026 Top Distributors list.
Welding & Gas
Roberts Oxygen: The Last Family Firm in Industrial Gas
How Roberts Oxygen stayed family-owned for three generations while Airgas, Praxair, and Linde consolidated the rest of the industrial gas industry.
Welding & Gas
How Red Ball Oxygen Stayed Family-Owned Through Consolidation
Red Ball Oxygen made MDM's 2026 Top Distributors list in Gases & Welding Supplies. How a Shreveport family business held its ground as the vertical rolled up.
Welding & Gas
O.E. Meyer: The Gas Distributor That Never Sold Out
O.E. Meyer made the 2026 MDM Top Distributors gases and welding supplies list. Its real story is the succession bet almost nobody else in the sector made.
Welding & Gas
Norco: The Welding Gas Distributor Employees Actually Own
Norco made MDM's 2026 top gas and welding distributors list. The sharper story is how a Kissler family business became 35% employee-owned in 2015.
Welding & Gas
nexAir: How a Family Gas Distributor Became a Linde Unit
nexAir grew for 80 years as a family business, then became a wholly owned Linde subsidiary in 2023, and still runs and acquires like an independent.
Welding & Gas
How Meritus Gas Partners Wins by Not Becoming Airgas
Meritus Gas Partners made MDM's 2026 Top Distributors list in Gases & Welding Supplies by rolling up welding-gas distributors without erasing them.
Welding & Gas
How Matheson Gave Up Its Own Name After 99 Years
Matheson lands on MDM's 2026 welding-gas list, but the deeper story is a 1927 US gas pioneer folding its name into a Japanese parent this year.
Welding & Gas
Linde: The Distributor That Bought Back Its Confiscated Half
Linde (Americas) lands on MDM's 2026 Top Distributors list for Gases & Welding Supplies. Its real competitive edge traces back to a century-old corporate split.
Welding & Gas
Indiana Oxygen: 111 Years of Betting Against the Roll-Up
Founded in 1915 and still Brant family-run, Indiana Oxygen self-funds its growth and builds its own gas plants while rivals consolidate under PE.
Welding & Gas
General Air: How a Denver Gas Distributor Stayed Independent
General Air made the 2026 MDM Top Distributors gases and welding list without ever leaving Colorado. Here is how 55 years of family and ESOP ownership got it there.
Welding & Gas
Gas and Supply: The Independent Airgas Never Bought
Gas and Supply made the 2026 MDM Top Distributors list in Gases & Welding Supplies by staying private while its whole sector rolled up into three global majors.
Welding & Gas
Arc3 Gases: A Family Roll-Up in a Consolidated Industry
Arc3 Gases ranks among 2026's top welding-gas distributors per MDM. How a 2013 merger of two family firms built a 60-branch, still-independent player.
Welding & Gas
AmeriGas: The Propane Giant That Had to Buy Itself Back
AmeriGas built America's largest propane network as a public partnership, then watched its own parent unwind that structure to save the business it created.
Welding & Gas
American Welding & Gas: The Roll-Up That Stayed Family-Owned
American Welding & Gas made MDM's 2026 Top Distributors list by acquiring its way through a decade of gas-industry consolidation, without ever selling out.
Welding & Gas
Welding & Gas has a product-data problem — and 2026 is when it starts costing deals
Welding & Gas catalogs run on inconsistent manufacturer feeds and PDF spec sheets — 2026's AI search and buyer shift make that a lost-deal problem.
Welding & Gas
The five questions welding & gas buyers ask that your product page must answer
Welding & gas buyers ask five specific questions before they order a spool of wire. See what happens to returns and support load when your page can't answer them.
Welding & Gas
How Airgas Fought Off One Buyer, Then Chose Another
Airgas lands on MDM's 2026 Top Distributors list at No. 3 in Industrial Supply. Its real lesson is a takeover it beat, then a deal it wanted.
Welding & Gas
Welding & Gas on marketplaces: the listing data that wins the buy box
Why welding and gas distributors lose the buy box on marketplaces, the identifier and attribute bar these channels enforce, and how to fix it.
Welding & Gas
Getting welding & gas products cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews
Welding & gas buyers now ask ChatGPT and Perplexity before a distributor site. See why thin ERP feeds go uncited and what machine-readable data fixes.
Welding & Gas
The welding & gas attributes buyers filter on — and most catalogs miss
The AWS classification, wire diameter, gas mix, and CGA fitting fields welding buyers filter on — and why a blank one deletes a spool from search results