Posts Tagged ‘stick welding’

Tips for Field Repair

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

It is important to have the best of quality equipments and immense knowledge in welding along with at most concentration when we are working with welding applications. Selecting proper engine driven welding generators, plasma cutters and other repair tools helps you to prevent downtime by fixing repair works right at the first time.

Equipment repair is adds up to your vows more compared to the complications you encounter while you weld. Every minute your machine turns down is a minute of lost time and minutes turn to hours when servicing those machines. Immense knowledge and experience in welding enables you to estimate the right kind of tools you always would need for the job and helps you to reduce downtime drastically and finish off the work quickly. At the end of the day your intelligence and quality of equipments predicts the outcome whether it’s a profitable one or not.

In order to finish off the field repair there are five basic steps you need to follow;

1.    Cut out broken steel with Oxy-fuel, Plasma or Carbon arc Gouging. This is the initial step         when  it comes to field repair. Most contractors have oxy fuel equipments for cutting, brazing, soldering, and preheating welding surfaces
2.    Match and cut replacement steel. Match your equipments based upon their strengths and  replace them. Cut your steel to its required size.
3.    Preheat to eliminate cracking. Fill the replacement steel to find irregularities and check its fitting. After achieving proper fit, preheat the surface with oxy-fuel equipment.
4.    Electrode Selection and Welding Technique. Mostly stick welding technique is preferred.
5.    Select your welding system. This factor depends upon the electrodes you have chosen in the previous step.

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What is CLAMS?

Friday, March 18th, 2011

The stick welding or the shield metal arc welding (SMAW) is one of the most used methods of welding techniques. We call SMAW as stick welding just because of the shape of the electrode that looks like a stick, which is responsible for the crust formation of the weld. When you want to make sure that your weld must turn out to be the perfect one, there are five important things that you will have to keep in your mind and welders call it as CLAMS. The full form of this jargon goes like this…

C – Current setting
L – Length of arc
A – Angle of travel
M – Manipulation
S – Speed of travel

These five points are the stuffs that you will have to take care off while carrying out the welding process, if you need that perfect weld. Most importantly, a welder must be ever ready to face any kind of disturbance or mechanical malfunctions.  Be calm and learn from the mistake you make and never be in a hurry while you perform the task. Always keep yourself well equipped and protected with proper protective gears to avoid any accidents.

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Types of Automated Welding Process

Monday, December 27th, 2010

“Automated welding” as the name says is done automatically or by machine. This process is divided into two categories:

A) Fully automated welding process
B) Semi automated process

Both the processes are same up to certain extent as they have automatic mechanical component that allows them to fuse a piece of metal. These procedures are computer oriented that provide them their controls over operations, this mechanism usually called their controller units.

However, there are some differences between them such as; when it comes to fully automated welding process, it needs minimum human interface to perform its functions. On the other hand, if it is the semi automated welding process then it requires great amount of human involvement to get the welding job done with accuracy. Fully automated process can fuse at high speed that is not possible manually. These machines have the capacity to repeat the procedure at very fast velocity and their repeatability over & over again provides them supremacy.

Semi automated welding procedure is reliant on individual interface. This operation requires the operator to do quality inspections or check for error if any. This process must have a welder to carry out the task.

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A note on Stick welders:

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), also known as stick welding is a manual arc welding process that uses a consumable electrode coated in flux to lay the weld. Due to its versatility and its simplicity, Shielded metal arc welding is one of the world’s most popular welding processes. It can be used in construction of steel structures and in industrial fabrication. The process is used primarily to weld iron, steel, aluminum, nickel and copper alloys.

Stick welding is used for fabrication, Repair, construction, pipe, steel erection, ship building and foundries. It can provide single phase, 3 phase or both types of input power. Output power can be AC/DC power.

How to stick weld:

• Choose the steel you want to weld. It can be plain carbon steel which is less than 1 percent carbon, less than 0.1 percent silicon and less than 0.035 percent sulfur.

• Choose the joint position you want to weld based on the thickness of the metal.

• Make sure that joint geometry is correct.

• Clean the joint before welding to attain the best travel speed.

• Use largest electrode that is practical.

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Tips on how to weld using stick welding:

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

Welding is a process where you weld aluminum steel and other metals and one should know how to weld in a proper way and here are some tips that guide you on how to weld,

• The first step is to gather all your materials such as welding machine, electrode and wire brush to clean the welds.

• Prepare the area to be welded in and find a good surface to weld on.

• Put on your welding safety gears such as welding helmets, welding gloves and welding goggles.

• Set up the welding machine and clean the metal before welding.

• Tap the metal and build up a weld pool .

• Start moving the weld pool and continue the pool towards the end of the metal.

• Pull the electrode form the metal and allow it to cool.

• Use the wire brush to clean the weld and allow the metal to cool.

Maintain a stable arc and create a good pool so that you acquire a good control over the welding process.

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Stick welding- the most popular welding process:

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Stick welding is the most popular welding process because of its versatility and its simplicity. It is a manual arc welding process that uses a consumable electrode and it is extensively used in steel structures and industrial fabrication. It is the most dominant welding process that is used to weld iron and steels, but other metals such as aluminum, nickel can also be welded. Stick welding gain its popularity from 1960s and the manual welding uses different flux coatings designed to work with specific types of steel and welding applications. This is called as manual welding because it requires the operator to handle the torch.

The choice of electrode for SMAW depends on a number of factors, including the weld material, welding position and the desired weld properties. Manual welding uses different flux coatings designed to work with specific types of steel and welding applications. Stick welding is the choice to weld stainless steel and this method of welding utilizes equipment that is typically the least expensive. The stick welding will require the weldor to remove the slag residue from the cooled weld by chipping it away with a hammer and cleaning it with a wire brush.

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How to improve stick welding?

Monday, September 27th, 2010

DC welding is considered best for stick applications due to following reasons:

• Easy to start
• Less spatter
• Easy vertical up and overhead welding
• DC provides 10 percent more penetration at a given amperage than AC
• DC welds thinner metals better

A 225 to 300 amp welding machine handles almost anything the average person will encounter, as most stick welding procedures require 200 amps or less. Duty cycle is the number of minutes out of a 10 minute cycle a welder can operate. Duty cycle and amperage are inversely proportional. The type of rod that is used for welding are hard facing rods as it can provide resistance, abrasion resistance or both depending on the application. Stick welding is more forgiving on unclean conditions, but it never hurts to clean parts with a wire brush or grind off excess rust. If you prepare well and have average welding ability, you can make a sound weld.

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How to stick weld?

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Stick welding is known as manual metal arc welding or shield metal arc welding. This is very popular form of arc welding. Select the steel to weld. Steel should be in plain carbon steel with less than 1 percent carbon, less than 0.1 percent silicon and 0.035 percent sulfur. Find the joint position based on the thickness of the metal. This angle should be lower for thicker metal with a 45 to 75 degree angle being best for 10 to 18 gauge steel. Make sure that joint geometry is correct. Width should be consistent for the entire joint. Clean the joint before welding to attain the best travel speed. Use the largest electrode that is practical. This is generally 3/16 inch for overhead and vertical welding while 5/32 inch is usually the maximum size for low hydrogen applications.

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SAFETY MEASURES FOR PLASMA CUTTING

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

• Do not touch any wet surface when operating the plasma cutter equipment

• Don’t use plasma cutters without any proper protection

• Wear ear muff when operating plasma cutting system, since it generates high noise levels

• Do not touch the body or object when the system is operating

• Don’t remove the ground cable which is attached with the work object

• Ensure that there is proper earth, since it connects with high electric circuit

• Wear proper protective clothing’s such as welding helmet and gloves

• Make sure that you are working in a well ventilated area

• If you are a heart patient and having pace maker, then consult your physician before you going for work

• Do not make any body contact with plasma arc cutting system

Plasma arc cutting is an easy process if you follow these safety precautions

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MIG welding wire types

Monday, June 28th, 2010

In metal fabrication and production, the MIG welder is commonly used owing to its versatility and efficiency. To control the amount of filler metal added to the weld puddle, the MIG welder uses welding wire fed from a spool. Diameter, alloy and type are used to categorize the MIG wire.

It is necessary that the alloy of the MIG wire must match the base metal being used. This would ensure that a strong weld would not crack or weaken when cooled. As a wide variety of alloys are available for MIG welders, welder would have the option to weld carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum. A MIG welding wore would have the name of the alloy, diameter and type of the wire marked on a label. The label would be visible while attached to the welding machine as it is located on the side of the wire spool. Even though the wire type would be marked on the label, each manufacturer has a different way of making wire type. The two distinct type of MIG welding wire are the solid core and the flux core. Solid core MIG wire is a solid strand of the chosen alloy while the flux core MIG welding wire has a flux paste inner core would be surrounded by the filler metal.

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