Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, primarily by using high temperature to melt the parts together and allow them to cool, causing fusion. Common alternative methods include solvent welding using chemicals to melt materials being bonded without heat, and solid-state welding processes which bond without melting, such as pressure, cold welding, and diffusion bonding.
Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), also known as manual metal arc welding, flux shielded arc welding or informally as stick welding, is a manual arc welding process that uses a consumable electrode covered with a flux to lay the weld.
Arc welding is a welding process that is used to join metal to metal by using electricity to create enough heat to melt metal, and the melted metals, when cool, result in a binding of the metals. It is a type of welding that uses a welding power supply to create an electric arc between a metal stick ("electrode") and the base material to melt the metals at the point of contact. Arc welding power supplies can deliver either direct (DC) or alternating (AC) current to the work, while consumable or non-consumable electrodes are used.
A gas-filled tube, also commonly known as a discharge tube or formerly as a Plücker tube, is an arrangement of electrodes in a gas within an insulating, temperature-resistant envelope. Gas-filled tubes exploit phenomena related to electric discharge in gases, and operate by ionizing the gas with an applied voltage sufficient to cause electrical conduction by the underlying phenomena of the Townsend discharge. A gas-discharge lamp is an electric light using a gas-filled tube; these include fluorescent lamps, metal-halide lamps, sodium-vapor lamps, and neon lights. Specialized gas-filled tubes such as krytrons, thyratrons, and ignitrons are used as switching devices in electric devices.
Plasma cutting is a process that cuts through electrically conductive materials by means of an accelerated jet of hot plasma. Typical materials cut with a plasma torch include steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass and copper, although other conductive metals may be cut as well. Plasma cutting is often used in fabrication shops, automotive repair and restoration, industrial construction, and salvage and scrapping operations. Due to the high speed and precision cuts combined with low cost, plasma cutting sees widespread use from large-scale industrial computer numerical control (CNC) applications down to small hobbyist shops.
An electric arc is an electrical breakdown of a gas that produces a prolonged electrical discharge. The current through a normally nonconductive medium such as air produces a plasma, which may produce visible light. An arc discharge is initiated either by thermionic emission or by field emission. After initiation, the arc relies on thermionic emission of electrons from the electrodes supporting the arc. An arc discharge is characterized by a lower voltage than a glow discharge. An archaic term is voltaic arc, as used in the phrase "voltaic arc lamp".
A plasma torch is a device for generating a directed flow of plasma.
Flux-cored arc welding is a semi-automatic or automatic arc welding process. FCAW requires a continuously-fed consumable tubular electrode containing a flux and a constant-voltage or, less commonly, a constant-current welding power supply. An externally supplied shielding gas is sometimes used, but often the flux itself is relied upon to generate the necessary protection from the atmosphere, producing both gaseous protection and liquid slag protecting the weld.
Gas tungsten arc welding is an arc welding process that uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode to produce the weld. The weld area and electrode are protected from oxidation or other atmospheric contamination by an inert shielding gas. A filler metal is normally used, though some welds, known as 'autogenous welds', or 'fusion welds' do not require it. A constant-current welding power supply produces electrical energy, which is conducted across the arc through a column of highly ionized gas and metal vapors known as a plasma.
Shielding gases are inert or semi-inert gases that are commonly used in several welding processes, most notably gas metal arc welding and gas tungsten arc welding. Their purpose is to protect the weld area from oxygen, and water vapour. Depending on the materials being welded, these atmospheric gases can reduce the quality of the weld or make the welding more difficult. Other arc welding processes use alternative methods of protecting the weld from the atmosphere as well – shielded metal arc welding, for example, uses an electrode covered in a flux that produces carbon dioxide when consumed, a semi-inert gas that is an acceptable shielding gas for welding steel.
In metalworking, a filler metal is a metal added in the making of a joint through welding, brazing, or soldering.
Atomic hydrogen welding is an arc welding process that uses an arc between two tungsten electrodes in a shielding atmosphere of hydrogen. The process was invented by Irving Langmuir in the course of his studies of atomic hydrogen. The electric arc efficiently breaks up the hydrogen molecules, which later recombine with tremendous release of heat, reaching temperatures from 3400 to 4000 °C. Without the arc, an oxyhydrogen torch can only reach 2800 °C. This is the third-hottest flame after dicyanoacetylene at 4987 °C and cyanogen at 4525 °C. An acetylene torch merely reaches 3300 °C. This device may be called an atomic hydrogen torch, nascent hydrogen torch or Langmuir torch. The process was also known as arc-atom welding.
Carbon arc welding (CAW) is an arc welding process which produces coalescence of metals by heating them with an arc between a non-consumable carbon (graphite) electrode and the work-piece. It was the first arc-welding process developed but is not used for many applications today, having been replaced by twin-carbon-arc welding and other variations. The purpose of arc welding is to form a bond between separate metal pieces. In carbon-arc welding a carbon electrode is used to produce an electric arc between the electrode and the materials being bonded. This arc produces temperatures in excess of 3,000 °C. At this temperature the separate metals form a bond and become welded together.
Hyperbaric welding is the process of extreme welding at elevated pressures, normally underwater. Hyperbaric welding can either take place wet in the water itself or dry inside a specially constructed positive pressure enclosure and hence a dry environment. It is predominantly referred to as "hyperbaric welding" when used in a dry environment, and "underwater welding" when in a wet environment. The applications of hyperbaric welding are diverse—it is often used to repair ships, offshore oil platforms, and pipelines. Steel is the most common material welded.
Oxy-fuel welding and oxy-fuel cutting are processes that use fuel gases and oxygen to weld or cut metals. French engineers Edmond Fouché and Charles Picard became the first to develop oxygen-acetylene welding in 1903. Pure oxygen, instead of air, is used to increase the flame temperature to allow localized melting of the workpiece material in a room environment. A common propane/air flame burns at about 2,250 K, a propane/oxygen flame burns at about 2,526 K, an oxyhydrogen flame burns at 3,073 K and an acetylene/oxygen flame burns at about 3,773 K.
Hardfacing is a metalworking process where harder or tougher material is applied to a base metal. It is welded to the base material, and generally takes the form of specialized electrodes for arc welding or filler rod for oxyacetylene and gas tungsten arc welding. Powder metal alloys are used in plasma-transferred arc (PTA), also called powder plasma welding, and thermal spray processes like high-velocity oxygen fuel coating, plasma spray, spray and fuse, etc. Submerged arc welding, flux core arc welding (FCAW) and metal inert gas (MIG) / metal active gas (MAG) use continuously fed wire varying in diameter depending on the process and current. The strip cladding process uses strips from 50 mm wide to 125 mm with a thickness of 0.5mm. Open arc welding uses a continuously fed tubular electrode which may or may not contain flux.
Orbital welding is a specialized area of welding whereby the arc is rotated mechanically through 360° around a static workpiece, an object such as a pipe, in a continuous process. The process was developed to address the issue of operator error in gas tungsten arc welding processes (GTAW), to support uniform welding around a pipe that would be significantly more difficult using a manual welding process, and to ensure high quality repeatable welds that would meet more stringent weld criteria set by ASME. In orbital welding, computer-controlled process runs with little intervention from the operator.
Thermacut, Inc is an international corporation which designs, manufactures, and sells replacement torches, guns, consumables, and accessories for the metal cutting and welding industries. The company’s headquarters are located in Uherske Hradiste, Czech Republic. The company operates sales warehouses in the United States, Germany, and the Czech Republic along with sales offices located in Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Mexico Great Britain, Russia, China, France, and Brazil.
Gas metal arc welding (GMAW), sometimes referred to by its subtypes metal inert gas (MIG) and metal active gas (MAG) is a welding process in which an electric arc forms between a consumable MIG wire electrode and the workpiece metal(s), which heats the workpiece metal(s), causing them to fuse. Along with the wire electrode, a shielding gas feeds through the welding gun, which shields the process from atmospheric contamination.
Gas blending is the process of mixing gases for a specific purpose where the composition of the resulting mixture is specified and controlled. A wide range of applications include scientific and industrial processes, food production and storage and breathing gases.
