commercial welder

Known as GTAW process, as the commercial welders call it, the gas tungsten arc welding process was created back in the 1940s when it was necessary for aluminum and magnesium alloys to be welded for the use of the aircraft industry and applications.

The gas tungsten arc welding process was developed as a new method of welding as it was necessary for welding to be done on these materials in a better way than the SMAW or the shielded metal arc welding process. Nowadays, the commercial welders are using the GTAW welding process when they have to weld precision parts such as metal bellows, batteries, various medical components, pacemakers, different surgical tools, etc.

In the beginning, the commercial welders were using the helium as the shielding gas and thus they named the welding process ‘heliarc welding’. Then the helium was replaced by the argon, which became the

Welding industry has its specific welding terms that each commercial welder has to be aware of. Of course, there is no need learning the entire welding vocabulary, yet one should get acquainted with some of the major terms, such as:

Arc Cutting – process that can be done with a 6010 or 6011 rod with a very hot machine. It is where you cut through the steel using the force of the arc.

Automatic Welding - a weld made by special equipment.

Flash Burn - This is a radiation burn from the ultra violet rays from the welding arc. The flash burn is similar to sunburn and it starts hurting hours later, being very painful to the eyes.

Machine Welding – the weld is done by machine and is inspected by a person.

Manual Welding – welding by an actual person. In stick welding, the welder holds the stinger, processing the welding electrode and controlling the weld

Becoming a commercial welder is what many people want, however there are yet much more people that would be good at that profession and yet they do not know it yet. Welding is being taught at schools and special courses and those young men that want to make a career in commercial welding or industrial welding first have to earn a structural welding certificate and be taken on the construction site or in the field.

Welding is a profession that is paid well, gives the workers a lot of freedom and has many advantages which appeal to those people who do not see themselves working from nine until five for five days in the week. At the same time learning how to weld and be good at that is not easy and the job is associated with a lot of risk and dangers.

The welders can work on many sites including repair shops, black iron plants, fields, etc. They will be better off in case they have joined the International Association of Bridge Structural, Ornamental and Re-Enforcing Iron Workers,

In general cases, acdc tig welders are used in environments that can be controlled. The commercial welders are usually working in factories, but they can also be found in repair shops, in the open air locations, as well as underwater. They can also work in the space.

When a commercial welder should work in an open air location to repair something outside or to do some work on a construction site, then the process that is most often used is the shielded metal arc welding.

When working outside, commercial welders cannot use welding processes with inert gases since the weather conditions and the atmospheric movements can be unpredictable. A research in the Arc Welding Forum will prove you that shielded metal arc welding can also be used for welding underwater when ships and various offshore platforms have to be repaired.

Since 1970’s welding in outer space is also possible when were made tests with metal arc welding, plasma arc welding, and electron beam w

Commercial welders use conventional stick electrode, also called ’constant current machine’ and a ’dropper’. This is so as the voltage used in this weld drops as the welding current goes up, resulting in its volt- ampere output curve ’droops’.

When the welding equipment used is turned on with no arc and no current flowing, the machine has a high open circuit of up to 80 volts. The welding is done at the steeper curve and this position is ideal for performing manual stick electrode welding. The arc voltage here depends on the physical length of the arc which is set between the weld and the electrode.

Multiprocess welders know that this cannot be held constant when they perform manual welding. The burn off rate of the filler wire is determined by the current and this burn off stays constant in case the current does not vary.

This type of welding equipment and welding machine has many variations which are based on the single or three phase power input and o

1. Welding Processes Power Supply

Commercial welders are aware that the selection of a welding process to be used depends on and is determined by the characteristics of the joint, as well as the materials used including the design of the joint, the materials’ shape and thickness. The good commercial welder also knows that he has to consider the production requirements as well, including the rate and the quality.

After the welding process has been determined by the arc welder, that the proper power supply and welding equipment are chosen. In other words, it is the welding process that is the primary factor in the selection of the power supply that is to be used. In this article and in the ones that follow will be presented a guide concerning the power supplies for the welding processes that have been especially used in the past ten years.

The welding processes have once been considered as special, yet today they could be found in all spheres of m

Repair welding is that type of welding that multiprocess welders perform when they want to make a certain item safe again and bring it back to its satisfactory operating condition. Sometimes the experienced arc welder can allow himself the so called alterations.

The alterations are the changes that the commercial welder can do to the pressure vessel, which will change its original design. These alterations are usually done when the manufacturer has presented a certificate authorization issued and validated by ASME. The alterations that the stick welder makes should always comply with the code section to which the original boiler or the pressure vessel was constructed.

The commercial welders do need to get a written repair procedure for making the alterations or doing the repair work. If the welder will perform an alteration, then a record has to be made and the alteration work has to be approved. The alteration records are usually filed with the jurisdictional agency

Many commercial welders today are employed in the process of maintenance and repair welding rather than in any other sphere of the welding industry. In other words there is a serious need of multiprocess welders who can perform various repair services and maintenance jobs. In fact, it should be mentioned here that the earliest usage of the welding processes was to repair different items.

As arc welders know, the success of a repair depends on the preparation that is done before the actual doing of the work. The good stick welder takes all the factors into consideration before starting the welding process.

In general, the multiprocess welder makes a detailed analysis, checking the repairs made and the service life of the part that is repaired. The stick welders can use this detailed method to analyze the welding job that has to be done. The four main points that the multiprocess welder has to take into consideration include:

- Making a very detailed examination

Multiprocess welders who are to perform welding on low-manganese steels are aware that these steels are of the AISI type 1320, 1330, 1335, 1340, and 1345 designations. These steels come with carbon that is in the range of 0.18-0.48%, silicon that is in the range from 0.20-0.35%, and manganese that is in the range of 1.60-1.90%.

With this type of steels the commercial welder does not require usage of reheating when the carbon and manganese are of the low range. When the carbon is around 0.25% then the commercial welder needs to preheat the steel to 120-150oC. After the welding is required post-heat treatment.

When the arc welders are performing welding processes on low-alloy chromium steels, they know that these steels are of the AISI type 5015 to 5160 and electric furnace steels of 50100, 51100, and 52100. Here, in these steels the stick welder can expect manganese levels from 0.30-1.00%, carbon ranges from 0.12-1.10%, silicon levels from 0.20-0.30% and chromium levels

In the previous part of this article was covered the first of the steel types, known by the commercial welders. Namely, these were the low-carbon steels and low-alloy steels. The commercial welders perform welding on two other types of steels, these being the medium-carbon steels and the high-carbon steels.

The medium-carbon steels that the stick welders weld at include the AISI series C-1020 to C-1050. With these steels the composition is similar to the low-carbon steels, however the carbon here ranges from 0.25 to 0.50%, while the manganese is in the range between 0.60 to 1.65%.

When the carbon and manganese are of the high level, the low-hydrogen type electrodes are recommended. The multiprocess welder usually prefers these welds when working on thick sections. In such cases sometimes preheating is required and it ranges from 150 to 260 Celsius degrees. Stick welders also require post-heating here, which relieves the stress and harness that is caused by the rapid