Tig Welding

This Tumblr is all about TIG Welding.

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Tig soldering: the revolution

Utopia and its Dutch partners brought high-tech to frame construction 15 years ago. This made our frames lighter and more stable.

TIG (tungsten inert gas) soldering is a special type of processing that is gentle on the frame tube. The material is briefly heated with an electric arc, and solder is automatically added.

The solder spreads around the pipe, creates a large contact area and strengthens the connection.

With this complex process, the thin-walled CrMo steel is not weakened by high soldering temperatures. This makes the connection very firm and (almost) indestructible, even without sleeves.

In the past, silver solder was used when soldering thin-walled tubes. It melts at lower heat than brass solder. But the silver solder flux has come under fire because it can cause lung cancer. After a long test phase, the switch was made 15 years ago. With success: the quality of the frame construction has clearly improved since then.

This type of soldering requires a very complex pipe preparation. All tubes must be machined with a CNC milling machine or tube laser cutters with very low tolerances. The connection must fit perfectly, this is the only way to guarantee the subsequent strength.

It was very important to involve the employees well in this lengthy process in order to achieve sustainability in the complicated production process. After all, the consumer wants an optimally strong, reliable product.

This processing has significantly increased the technical effort and the working time for a frame by around 60%. The strength of the frame is greater than that of a socket connection, but it is lighter - and more elegant.

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Tips for welding gray cast iron

Gray cast iron is a material that can be found, for example, in wood-burning stoves, as cylinder heads in vintage cars or in the form of cast iron pans. Like any other material, gray cast iron can crack or burst in certain places.

Welding gray cast iron is basically possible, even in such a form that the damaged area can withstand high temperatures and remains tightly closed even under high loads, i.e. is completely repaired again. However, welding gray cast iron requires some practice and is much more difficult than welding iron or steel, for example.

Gray cast iron is a material that can be found, for example, in wood-burning stoves, as cylinder heads in vintage cars or in the form of cast iron pans. Like any other material, gray cast iron can crack or burst in certain places.

It can therefore make more sense to entrust the work to a professional welding company if the welder has no prior knowledge or only little experience.

For those of you who want to try it yourself, here are a few tips:

As with all other welding work, when welding gray cast iron, the area to be welded must be thoroughly cleaned and absolutely clean when starting to weld.

The workpiece must be preheated before welding, otherwise new cracks can form and the actual repair will cause more damage than actually existed.

Special cast electrodes are used for welding. It is important to really use electrodes that are tailored to the respective type of casting, because depending on the type of casting, different additives are present, which in turn, together with the gray cast iron, have a significant influence on its properties.

However, these special work materials are relatively expensive. Incidentally, it is not possible to reinforce gray cast iron by welding normal steel.

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The temperature of the workpiece plays an important role during the welding process. If it cools down too quickly, it can happen that the welding point is not properly closed and all the work was in vain.

It therefore makes perfect sense to reheat the workpiece if necessary in order to ensure a sufficiently high temperature. The same applies when the work itself has been completed. Here, too, it is important that the cooling takes place slowly; depending on the equipment, a suitable oven, sand or, if necessary, a protective welding blanket are available.

Here is a short video about the production of gray cast iron:

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Basic knowledge of welding aluminum

Aluminum is one of the light metals and can be welded relatively well using various welding processes.

Problems with welding aluminum always occur when the required equipment or knowledge is not available. In this article I will give you a few things to do with both, and you will learn a lot about welding aluminum. At the end there is another very important video on the subject.

First important basis for welding aluminum:

>> Aluminum can only be welded with alternating current using the TIG welding process <<

The reason is simply that the direct current does not break the oxide layer. But what is needed to weld the aluminum. But I will come to the topic of oxide layers and aluminum oxide later. MIG welding is an exception, especially in the MIG process with pulse. Very good results can often be achieved, even with direct current. A major disadvantage is that acceptable results are only possible with very expensive HIGH END devices. Inexpensive devices that do not have a pulse function, for example, fail here. Or deliver results that are not acceptable. Since Mannis Welding Channels is designed for beginners and hobby welders, I will limit myself to the TIG process here.

Welding process for aluminum

TIG and MIG welding are suitable for welding aluminum. Also requires electrode welding, which is not recommended.

TIG tungsten inert gas welding If a few rules are observed, it is very suitable for welding aluminum. In TIG welding, an arc burns between a non-melting tungsten electrode and a workpiece / component. The welding filler required is added separately by the welder.

A particularly good welding result is achieved when pulsing with alternating current. If you are interested in TIG welding, I would like to recommend use a tig welding helmet at helmet adviser.

MIG metal inert gas welding

Practically the same as MAG or inert gas welding only with a different gas. An inert gas, usually argon or a mixture of argon.

The pulse method is important here.

In my experience, only more expensive MIG devices from EWM, for example, achieve good results. With such devices, the user can easily spend several thousand euros.

That is why my favorite when it comes to aluminum welding is TIG welding, the possibilities and flexibility are also very good.

Which welding machine

I have two favorites that I have had very good experiences with.

The first rather inexpensive machine is sufficient for the hobby or occasional welder and at 400-500 € rather cheap.

The second welding device is an absolute professional device and also suitable for high demands. The device really leaves nothing to be desired and setting options. We are talking about an EWM Picotig 200 AC DC PULSE TIG inverter welding machine. EWM is one of the leading manufacturers of welding equipment.

Alumina

The biggest problem with welding aluminum is the aluminum oxide layer.

Aluminum and oxygen aluminum oxide form a thin layer on the surface. The problem with this is that aluminum has a melting temperature of approx. 660 ° C. This thin layer of aluminum oxide, however, has a melting temperature of over 2000 ° C.

It is therefore difficult to melt this oxide layer and when you melt it, the base material has already received far too much energy / heat.

>> So there is only one thing to do to remove the aluminum oxide layer and the best way to do that is to sand. Preferably just before welding. The oxide layer forms immediately again. <<

Preheating

Aluminum can be welded much better when it has a certain temperature of around 80-100 degrees. This is because aluminum is such a good conductor of heat. If the material is too cold, it simply removes too much energy from the weld.

A burner can be used to preheat, for example, and smaller components can also be placed in the oven.

Tips for welding aluminum

- Round off the tungsten electrode Normally the electrode is sharpened to a point, for aluminum the electrode must be more rounded.

-Ensure that the weld seam is clean. After grinding the oxide layer, it is best to clean the seam. Remove sanding dust and dirt.

-If the welding machine has a pulse function, then use this too.

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Tig Welding-Its Basics and Advantages & Disadvantages

Tungsten inert gas welding (TIG welding) belongs to the group of fusion welding processes and is characterized by particularly clean processing, high seam quality and almost universal applicability in the field of metals.

Due to the particularly precise coordination of the welding current with the respective welding task, the welding process is particularly suitable for root passes and constrained positions. For this reason, TIG welding is very popular for tasks with high demands on precision and seam quality, for example in pipeline and apparatus construction as well as in power plant construction and in the chemical industry.

Technical basics for TIG welding

The TIG welding process is based on the generation of an electric arc between the workpiece and an electrode made of tungsten. In addition, an inert gas such as argon or helium is used to protect the arc from external influences.

TIG welding functionality

Compared to other welding processes such as MIG or MAG welding, TIG welding is primarily characterized by the fact that the tungsten electrode used does not melt during welding, but is retained. Instead, a filler metal is used as required to create a seam between the workpieces to be joined. This filler material is usually a welding wire that is held at the contact point of the two workpieces and melts there.

The structure of a TIG welding system

A TIG welding system essentially consists of a gas supply, a power source, a hose package, the torch and the negative pole. The power source is responsible for generating the voltage required to ignite the arc. In the past, short-circuit-based contact ignition was often used, today high-frequency ignition has become established. A high-voltage pulse generator is used to generate the high voltage required and to ionize the gas between the electrode and the workpiece. This procedure results in a safer and more efficient ignition process.

The hose package is not only responsible for the conduction of the welding current, but also contains the guidance of the shielding gas and the control line. With larger burners, it is also necessary to set up a cooling system to dissipate the process heat. In this case the hose package also contains the flow and return of the cooling water.

Areas of application for TIG welding

TIG welding is mainly used in applications where the demands on the quality and appearance of the weld seam are very high. These include the following areas of application:

Pipeline and apparatus construction

Power plant construction

Chemical industry

Medical technology

Bicycle frame construction

Aerospace Engineering

Railing construction

steel construction

Which shielding gas is used?

In TIG welding technology, the shielding gas is responsible for protecting and stabilizing the electric arc from the effects of oxygen. The gas thus represents an important basis for the quality of the weld seams.

When selecting the protective gas, it is important that it is an inert gas. Inert gases do not enter into any chemical reactions with the materials involved and are therefore ideally suited for use in welding processes.

Due to its inexpensive procurement, the noble gas argon is particularly popular in TIG welding. For applications with a high level of heat input, helium or a mixture of helium and argon is also used. If particularly high speeds are desired during welding, hydrogen can also be added in small quantities.

When supplying protective gas, it is important to determine a suitable flow rate. The flow rate depends not only on the material, but also on the desired shape of the weld, the welding position and the diameter of the gas nozzle.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of TIG welding?

The advantages and disadvantages of the TIG welding process at a glance:

Advanatages:

Suitable for all weldable metals

Precise addition of welding wire thanks to the non-melting tungsten electrode

No slag formation thanks to inert gas

Hardly any material deformation

Suitable for all welding positions

Disadvantages

High susceptibility to wind, therefore not suitable for outdoor areas

High energy demand

High initial investment