If you own, run or work at a welding facility you have undoubtfully had to troubleshoot bad welds. Troubleshooting is necessary in order to solve problems, but if you do not have a clear methodology or process for troubleshooting it can be a huge source of downtime. To properly troubleshoot bad welds, we must have […]
Quality and cost go hand in hand, or at least they should. Poor quality may be cheap during the fabricating process, but very costly when it comes to warranty repairs and potentially losing customers. Many of the companies we work with have seen substantial cost reductions when we help them address quality concerns. For the […]
Selecting the best welding process is a critical step in developing a welding procedure that attains the desired quality and optimizes productivity. Many times we look for the welding process that can give us the highest deposition rate to optimize productivity. However, every welding process has limitations. For example, submerged arc welding (SAW) has extremely […]
A repair procedure is necessary any time there is a defect in welding that must be corrected. The repair procedure is not just a welding procedure specification, but rather a set of instructions and rules on how to repair different types of defects. There is no standard format for a repair procedure, or a standard […]
Maintenance-related problems are responsible for a large portion of bad welds in every day welding. However, these causes go unnoticed and unresolved because they happen slowly over time. A proper preventive maintenance program for welding machines, CNC cutting tables and other industrial equipment is absolutely necessary. Many of the problems related to maintenance that cause […]
Waveform control is the ability of a welding power source to affect heat input, droplet shape and size, penetration, bead shape and toe wetting by the use of microprocessor controls which manage the welding output. Advances in waveform control technology over the past two decades have provided the ability to weld tough materials successfully. One […]
The new edition of AWS D1.1 Structural Welding Code (Steel) has been released. If you are looking to get the hard copy you may need to wait a few weeks, but the electronic version is ready for purchase from the American Welding Society (AWS) through their website. There is a significant cost to obtain the […]
One of the specs we need to know about a particular welding machine is its duty cycle. The duty cycle gives you an idea of how hard and how long you can run a welding machine before it overheats and shuts down. Unfortunately at times we have issues with machines exceeding the duty cycle when it shouldn’t, […]
Thousands of manufacturing shops are full of old welding equipment. We all want to be good stewards of our money or our company’s money, and we want to make things last as long as possible. We sometimes even take pride on the fact that we have had a specific welding machine for 20-25 years. Most […]
Buying your first welding machine can be stressful. Even the cheap brands can cost around $300-400 for a decent mig welder. Deciding where to buy is critical. You can certainly buy online, but you can also buy through industrial distributors or big box stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot. So how do you choose? Here […]
