How Does A Tig Welder Work?
July 6th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
The “GTAW” or the Gas Tungsten Arc Welding has come a long way of discoveries before it got its name. At first, it was given the name “Heliarc” after the helium gas that was used when the process was invented. Later, it was discovered that argon worked better and so it was changed to “TIG” or Tungsten Inert Gas. Inert gas could either refer to helium or argon.
Soon later, it was discovered that small additions of hydrogen worked well for some metals. The word “inert” no longer applied to the new discovery. Thus, the technical term for what used to be called TIG and Heliarc is now “GTAW” or Gas Tungsten Arc Welding.
Compare to other arc welding processes, TIG welding is more difficult to use though. Just like gas welding, one is required to use both hands with the torch held in one hand and the filter rod in the other. Oftentimes, a foot pedal amperage control is also used which makes it more inconvenient.
The TIG torch can either be water or air cooled. It is designed also to give shielding gas and welding current through a tungsten electrode. A ceramic nozzle leads the shielding gas to the weld puddle and internal copper parts like the collet and the body holds the electrode in place. The tungsten electrode is sharpened for applications where the arc need to be pinpointed and for very low amperage.
The heat melts the metal and makes the weld puddle comes from the arc that is created between the tungsten electrode and the work piece. Argon, helium or a mixture of both shields the arc. For some particular alloys, hydrogen is added in small percentages to improve the way the puddle flows. The arc is very smooth and quiet and clean when DC current is used. But when the TIG welding machine is set on Alternating current, it is slightly noisier but still clean and smooth.
Here is a list of some popular metals that can be welded using the TIG welding process: Carbon and low alloy steels like 1010 carbon and 4130 chromoly steels; 301, 321 and 17-7ph stainless steels; inconel 718 Nickel alloy and X Hastelloy; Aluminim alloy like 6061 and 5052; az31b Magnesium alloys; 6a14v Titanium alloys and those that are commercially pure; Stellite 6b and 1605 Cobalt alloys; copper alloys like Nibral bronze and pure copper and a whole lot more. Okay, now, the thing you need to do is go out there and get some practice so get a cheap plasma cutter tig arc welder and start today.
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