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#HELIUM ELECTRIC ARC FREE#
It is necessary to maintain perfect cleanliness of the equipment and metals used in TIG welding (they must be free of oil, dirt, moisture, and any other impurities) to achieve a good quality weld since the impurities make the weld porous.ĭifferent methods like cleaning the surface with commercially available solvents, water jet cleaning, and stainless steel wire brush, etc., can be adopted. GTAW/TIG welding process gives the welder more control over the weld area than the other welding processes, and this helps a skilled welder to produce weldments of excellent quality. The triggering of the arc also starts the flow of the inert shielding gas. Once the welder strikes the arc, the welder moves the torch in small circles to create the welding pool, and the size of the welding pool depends on the electrode diameter and the current value. There are different methods to strike the arc, including using a high-frequency generator. The welder manually adds the filler metal at the front of the weld pool. The welder maintains a constant gap (1.5 to 3mm) between the workpiece and the electrode tip and tilts the torch a bit backward (around 8-15º from vertical).
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TIG welding is an arc welding process that operates at more than 6000º F (3315º C). The welder must maintain a short arc while avoiding physical contact between the workpiece and the electrode. TIG welding needs very good coordination between the eye and hands and also good practice. When the welder does TIG welding manually, he/she has to engage both hands, one hand for the welding torch and the other hand for the filler wire, and both hands should move in perfect coordination to achieve good welding. Reactive metals are metals that get affected by the presence of oxygen and other gasses in the air. The workpiece metals are normally reactive metals such as stainless steel, aluminum, magnesium, etc. GTAW produces fewer fumes compared to GMAW or SMAW. Typically argon or helium or a mixture of argon and helium is used as the shielding gas. The tungsten electrode is used only for maintaining an arc, and a separate filler wire is used to add the metal to the weld pool. In this process, welding is done using the heat generated by the electric arc between the non-consumable tungsten electrode and the workpiece for the melting of the faying surfaces. Filler metal is typically used (except in the case of very thin metal parts). An inert shielding gas protects the welding arc, the tungsten electrode, and the molten weld pool from atmospheric air and contaminations. Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), popularly known by the name tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding is an arc welding process however, the difference between GTAW and other arc welding processes ( SMAW or GMAW) is that GTAW uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode. Working process of Gas Tungsten Arc Welding GTAW/ TIG Welding? The then inventor named the process ‘Heliarc.’ The American Welding Society named this process GTAW however, it is popularly known by TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) welding. The present-day GTAW process was initially developed in 1941 using tungsten electrodes and helium as an inert gas. Before the invention of Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW), difficulties were faced for welding nonferrous metals like aluminum and magnesium since their reaction with the air was very rapid, resulting in porous weldments.
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