If you look at any of the structural welding codes you’ll notice that contact-tip-to-work-distance (CTTWD) is a variable which must be listed in welding procedure specifications (WPSs). However, it is not an essential variable, meaning that changes to CTTWD of any amount do not require requalification. This can seem puzzling to some, especially those […]
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 […]
Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), or what is commonly referred to as “stick welding,” is one of the oldest welding processes. Despite being one of the first welding processes developed, it remains one of the most used welding process worldwide. If you have been working in a fabrication shop for years using advanced GMAW (mig) […]
This question can be answered very quickly. Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) and Submerged Arc Welding (SAW) can have 98-99% deposition efficiency. However, the question is a bit more complicated since when we talk about efficiency we don’t just care about deposition efficiency (how much of the electrode becomes weld metal). What we care about […]
Can our selection of shielding gas affect the strength of a weld and other important mechanical properties? Absolutely! The difference is more pronounced when using flux-cored (FCAW) wires than when using mig (GMAW) wires, especially as the wire’s tensile strength goes up. Although we can affect strength by using different gases, what we should be […]
We are frequently asked if there are any real benefits of using pulse over CV in the MIG process. The short answer is “absolutely.” But before we can answer we need to ask: “what is the application?” To really appreciate the benefits of pulsed GMAW compared to traditional CV (short arc or globular) it is […]
