What is Welding & How it can be Performed?

We all know that welding is a metal joining process and it is used everywhere from the house you live in to the car you drive. It is one of the most trusted and effective ways to join two metal pieces together with heat, pressure, and filler materials.

There are four major welding processes which are:

• Shielded Metal Arc welding or stick welding,
• Gas Metal Arc Welding,
• Flux-cored arc welding and
• Gas Tungsten Arc Welding.

There are certain factors that are needed to create a weld; which are heat sources such as an electric arc, a flame, pressure, or friction. In the welding process majorly the heat source is an electric arc. Other required materials include welding rod or welding electrode, welding wire, flux, shielding gas, etc.

Let us discuss these welding processes in detail and which welding consumables are the best suit for various applications

Shielded Metal Arc Welding Process- is also known as the stick welding process, where the welding electrodes are consumed. These electrodes are built with a metal rod, covered with flux. The welding rod or stick is held in the torch with a small clamp. The welding rod has a solid coating of inert materials which vaporizes as you weld, which creates an inert cloud or gases which protect the weldment from the external environment. At last, when the weldment cools down it is referred to as ‘slag’. This welding process is widely used across major industries.

Generally, SMAW welding is used for small welds, where many electrodes are manufactured by different companies but majorly two types of welding rods are consumed (also known as general-purpose electrodes) E6013 and E7018. Although there are several welding electrodes available in the market but Supratherme (an E7018 electrode) is known for its excellent service, because this electrode is consumed by welders since 1966, Supratherme is a very heavy coated low hydrogen, iron powder type electrode, it is an ideal choice for producing tough and ductile welds of radiographic quality on boilers, pressure vessels, and heavy structures subjected to dynamic loading. This electrode has a metal recovery of about 115%. Some typical applications include heavy structures subjected to dynamic loading and impact, highly restrained joints, railway coaches, big wagons, penstocks, heavy pressure vessels, coal boilers, earthmoving machines & equipment, etc.

Norma is an E6013 welding rod which, is a medium coated rutile type AC/DC all position mild steel electrode for welding mild steel structures, railway coaches, big wagons, heavy storage tanks, large ships, etc.
Norma is one of the common mild steel electrodes which is designed according to the American Welding Standards- E6013. Norma mild steel rod can be used for different mild steel structures.

Gas Metal Arc Welding- is also known as metal inert gas welding, here the welding wire consumables are generally available in a roll which is fed into a semi-automatic machine and it comes out of a welding torch to the workpiece. A welder needs to control the speed of the wire so that long welds can be done without stopping or replacing the rod. The gun also feeds out an inert gas such as argon or CO2 to displace oxygen and other atmospheric contamination from weldment. In the MIG welding process, welders don’t have to chip slag away.

A commonly used welding wire for the GMAW/MIG process is Autotherme-1 which is a copper-coated mild steel wire to weld mild steel, low carbon steel, and other structural steels of tensile strength up to 540 MPa. The wire burns with a smooth arc and minimum spatter under optimum welding conditions. The Autotherme-1 is designed for single and multi-pass welding of low and medium carbon steels.

Flux Cored Arc Welding – is generally considered less complex and can be easily understood by the welders. Unlike other arc welding processes that use AC or DC power supply, in this process, the arc is produced when the welding gun is struck between the continuously fed consumable filler wire and the workpiece. It creates the weld pool and bonds when the pool solidifies. The wire consumable contains flux in its core which helps in protecting the molten weld pool from atmospheric contamination.

Maxfil-309 is an all-position stainless steel flux cored wire which stays in high demand because it deposits good oxidation resistance (up to 1100°C) weld metal with radiographic quality. This SS flux-cored wire has a smooth and stable arc with great slag detachability. Maxfil-309 is suitable for joining dissimilar steels like 304 type stainless steels to mild steel & low alloy steel, cladding & overlaying applications, & difficult to weld steels, etc.

Gas Tungsten Arc Welding Process- also known as tungsten inert gas welding. In the GTAW welding process, a tank and inert gases are used to shield the weld. TIG welding process can be performed with consumables and without consumables where the tungsten electrode carries the arc. Tungsten withstands the heat of welding. In TIG welding the welder requires the most skill because the welder has to hold a filler rod in one hand and the gun in the other in order to accomplish this type of welding.

FW 1250 is a solid wire for TIG welding, it is available in a bright finish, which gives smooth flow, stable arc, and spatters free under optimum welding conditions. It gives X-Ray quality welds. The weld metal possesses good resistance to corrosion by seawater, chlorinated solvents, sulfuric acid, and alkalis. It is an ideal choice to weld monel- to-monel, Ni-Cu alloys to themselves, Ni-Cu alloy to steels, for welding clad sides of Ni- Cu clad steel, and for surfacing on steel parts. It is widely chosen by the marine, chemical, food, dairy, and
oil refining industries.

Welding in itself is a huge topic and it becomes difficult to understand all in one go. But we believe that through the above mentioned details you must have got a basic idea about welding, how it works and what all is required. Welding can be done on many different kinds of metals where welding manufacturers build different types of welding consumables according to different metals and work pieces. The welding industry is known for many wonders, do not let your passion get unattended and continue to explore the amazingness of the welding world.