The Work Process of MIG Welder:

A mig welder runs off electricity and uses the electrical current to raise the temperature of the base metal and fuse the filler metal (MIG wire) together in an electrical arc. This is your welding process.

The electrical current is passed from the power point on the wall, into the welding power supply, through the welding torch. When the trigger is squeezed the current then travels through the contact tip onto the wire making the welding wire live and conductive.

On the part you want weld, you attach the "welding earth" lead. Then when the MIG wire touches the earthed part, the electrical circuit is complete. As a result, the electricity starts to flow making a flash of sparks and an arc is created.

This arc is welding, without it you have nothing. Remember that "arc welding" is the process of welding using electricity. Mig welding is still arc welding as it uses electricity to make an arc, it's just that we call it MIG welding.

Welding Methods:

There are three types of welding methods to consider. They differ by speed and cost. The methods are all available to all welding and hardfacing products. However, specific products often have properties that are somewhat unique and not exactly duplicated when utilized by a different process.

Stick Welding:

Manual or stick welding requires the least amount of equipment and provides maximum flexibility for welding in remote locations and in all positions. Typically, each rod permits welding for about one minute. In seconds, one can change from mild steel to stainless to hardfacing. In seconds, the electrode can change from small to large diameter for small or large welds. Although simplest, this type of welding takes the greatest operator skill.

Semiautomatic:

This type of welding uses wire feeders and continuously fed electrodes. The welding gun is hand-held by the operator. The gun keeps feeding wire as long as the trigger is depressed. This is also much easier to learn than stick welding. This type of setup is becoming more popular on farms, which do more than minimal repair work. Semiautomatic welding increases deposition rates over manual welding because there is no need to stop after burning each rod.

Automatic:

Requiring the greatest amount of initial setup, automatic welding has the highest deposition rates for maximum productivity. The welding gun is carried by a mechanized carriage and the welding operator just pushes a start button. This would rarely be found on a farm, but is common at repair centers for heavy equipment that would rebuild your parts for you if the schedule was mutually acceptable.

Welding Project Ideas:

Thanks to the ongoing processes of technology - which, after something has been invented, tend to steadily simplify it, make it cheaper, and make it more suitable for general use through miniaturization and suchlike developments - welders are now available to the general public at a relatively inexpensive cost. Compact, high-quality, low-cost portable welders are now marketed which offer any handyman or tinkerer the opportunity to make use of this extremely convenient joining method.

The uses of welding are many and varied, ranging from the aesthetic to the practical, from small, intricate objects to large ones such as the frames for light outbuildings. A welder can be used in automotive work, for example. Resistance spot welding is often used to fit sheet metal patches into body panels where areas of rust or severe damage have been cut away, using resistance spot welding technology because ordinary spot welders cannot touch both sides of many car panels due to their being welded to the frame. MIG welding is often used for fixing patches in place as well, with initial spot welds to tack the new metal in place and a continuous weld to finish the job off.

Plasma Welding Guidelines:

Plasma-welding-tips are useful reminders intended to stress the main characteristics of Plasma Arc Welding (PAW) for the correct exploitation of its specific advantages.

The first of the Plasma-welding-tips is a correct definition of PAW, useful for understanding the differences that make the process unique.

Plasma Arc Welding is defined as a gas shielded arc welding process where the heat for welding is generated by an arc producing collimated plasma by the passage of the shielding gas through a constricting nozzle.

The copper alloy nozzle is called constricting because it presents a limited diameter orifice, through which the shielding gas, highly ionized by its transit through the arc, must pass.

The concentrated and collimated jet stream of ionized gas (composed of nearly equal number of electrons and ions of gas atoms and molecules) that exits at very high temperature (about 17,000 0C or 30,000 0F) from the constricting nozzle is called a plasma column.

Plasma Arc Welding can be performed with or without additional filler metal. In manual applications, the filler metal as added as needed by hand. In the mechanized version, the filler metal is added from the side by a wire feeder.

Plasma-welding-tips concerns understanding the specific features of the process detailed below, and using its capabilities for obtaining successful welding results.

Robotic Stick Welding:

Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) is frequently referred to as stick or covered electrode welding. Stick welding is among the most widely used welding processes. The flux covering the electrode melts during welding. This forms the gas and slag to shield the arc and molten weld pool. The slag must be chipped off the weld bead after welding. The flux also provides a method of adding scavengers, deoxidizers, and alloying elements to the weld metal.

Stick Welding Benefits:

• Equipment used is simple, inexpensive, and portable.
• Electrode provides and regulates its own flux.
• Lower sensitivity to wind and drafts than gas shielded welding processes.
• All position capability.

Stick Welding Discontinuities:

• Undercut
• Incomplete fusion
• Porosity
• Slag Inclusions
• Cracks

Stick Welding Problems:

• Arc Blow
• Arc Stability
• Excessive spatter
• Incorrect weld profile
• Rough surface
• Porosity

Mig Welding Gun Liner:

Inside the whole length of the mig welding gun is a mig liner. The liner is a length of steel wound conduit that is fitted into place and has the welding wire running inside of it. The steel liner looks like the same stuff that they use in flexible drive shafts for whipper snippers, and it also looks the same as the flexible white plastic coated springy cord that you can hang curtains from.

Liners are available in different sizes and lengths. The deal is that you buy a liner that is as long as, or longer than your welding cable. If it is longer than you need, you just use some pliers and chop some off the end. The liner will travel starting from the welding machine euro connection (or whatever connection there is) to the back of the contact tip holder. The firmness of the steel liner will allow safe passage of the mig wire and help prevent feeding issues.

You can also get plastic or teflon liners. These are used for when you have to feed aluminum wires. This is because the wire is very soft and the metal liners have more friction in them than the plastic ones. Some brands and models of welding guns will have a two piece kit.

Kinds of Underwater Welding:

There are three kinds of underwater welding. These are wet underwater welding, coffer dam welding, and hyperbaric welding. Each kind is completely unique from the others and has specific processes that have to be followed.

Wet underwater welding is done using the manual metal arc welding (MMA) process most commonly. Flux-cored arc welding (FCAW) used to be used in the former Soviet Union. Friction welding has a lot of potential to be used in deep water repair, especially if something needs to be repaired where people can't go. It mainly is done using robots.

Coffer dam welding consists of a steel structure that is sealed against the side of the structure that needs to be welded. It is open to the atmosphere and houses the welders in dry air, making it easier to do the welds.

Hyperbaric welding is done by sealing a chamber around the structure to be welded, and then filling it with gas. Helium is commonly used. The gas fills the chamber to a higher pressure than the water around and pushes the water out. More recently, transparent enclosures around the area to be welded are being used. The welder/diver then welds using several MMA electrodes in turn. They work from outside the chamber and the electrodes are already positioned through a flexible port in advance. The enclosures are made for every joint needing to be welded, and this process costs much less than the conventional method of making a large chamber.

Mig Welding instructions:

Mig welding tips presented hereafter review important aspects and point to special features of this popular process, officially designated as GMAW - Gas Metal Arc Welding.

The still popular name MIG (Metal Inert Gas) was initially adopted when the inert gases used to weld aluminum were only argon or helium. Later on, the introduction of mixes of active gases like oxygen, hydrogen and carbon dioxide to weld other metals too, suggested the need to drop the word "inert" from the description, with the adoption of the accepted new name.

Although Mig-welding-tips should be universally known, being the process quite diffused, widely popular and successful in numerous applications, it is contended by no less authority than Ed Craig, a universally acclaimed world expert, that unfortunately many misconceptions still limit its use.

ARC Welding:

A Popular Method:

Representing 20% of all robotic applications, arc welding is one of the most common functions in industry today. During this process, electricity jumps from an electrode guided through the seam, to the metal product. This electric arc generates intense heat, enough to melt the metal at the joint. Sometimes the electron is simply a conductor that guides the arc. Other times the rod or wire is composed to become part of the weld.

Creating a Fusion Bond:

The resulting fusion bond is a seamless addition to the product. The mix of metals has the same strength as the original metals. This is one of the reasons arc welding is preferred to soldering or brazing. Non-fusion methods can be weaker because they fail to duplicate the mechanical and physical properties of the metals.

Automated Arc Welding Benefits Include:

• Consistency of quality welds
• Repeatability
• Lowered production costs
• Fewer scrapped parts
• Increase your return on investment (ROI)
• 100% warranty
• Hands-on robot training
• Fewer injuries from weld splatter or fumes
• Speed - faster part cycle time