Welding Tips and Tricks

I work at a stainless steel tank/trailer manufacturer and am interested in trying to see if they would be interested in using pulse spray seeing how a lot of the machines already have pulse spray capabilities. I was wondering if any of you hear have any experience with the process. We use a 98/2 gas mixture more all GMAW welds. With our current gas is this possbile? We typically weld 10 gauge stainless as an average and mostly use short circuit that is extremely hot and I figured if we try to use some pulse spray, we could help eliminate a lot of spatter, some fume reduction, better out of position welds and get better fusion. We run some horizontal but a lot is vertical down or overhead. Any information about the process would be greatly appreciated. I am going to try working with one of my teachers at school this week to figure out some settings and set up for the machines.

Not saying you can't or shouldn't try that, simply that it might not be possible across the boards in a large manufacturing setting. One of the problems endemic to a large manufacturer is skill levels of the employees and how widely it can vary. You may be capable of this yourself, but others are not.

Here is Lincoln's guide for mig, pulsed stainless starts on p.32. https://locost7.info/files/tools/Lincol ... +Guide.pdf

When talking processes and improvement in manufacturing, its not just about the welding process. There are a whole slew of considerations, but mostly Its About Money. You have to present a compelling argument that makes sense and cents, then prove that it works as well on the floor as it does on paper. If you can do that in a way that isn't insulting to your superiors- they will do what you suggest. I was able to implement a series of procedures for fit up and weld-out of a large weldement in an assembly process that saved the line about 3hrs @ about $1K/hr= $3k/hr/shift X 3 shifts = 12k per day.

Be careful about your presentation and who you present to. A lot of shift supervisors hear stuff all day about how much better X would be if we did Y from whiney miscreants that always try to deconstruct a system without improvement in order to justify their crappy work and lack of performance. DON'T DO THAT! Prove Your Work Then Present A Solution.

And be patient. More often than not, even if your suggestion makes it past your direct supervisor (which it may not) it still has to move through the proper channels and be approved broadly. This takes a while. Maybe 3 mos., maybe 6. It's also usually very difficult to come up with an improvement, a Real improvement, in a well thought through process, because you are no longer dealing with just a welding process, you are dealing with an entire manufacturing process. The horizon is much bigger than the view through the hood.

I'm thinking you'll have a lot of trouble going to spray in anything other than flat position, and ESAB seems to back that thinking.
http://www.esabna.com/euweb/mig_handbook/592mig1_7.htm

Franz© wrote:I'm thinking you'll have a lot of trouble going to spray in anything other than flat position, and ESAB seems to back that thinking.
http://www.esabna.com/euweb/mig_handbook/592mig1_7.htm

Spray yes. I’m talking pulse spray which is an all posisiton mode of transfer. It is a rather cool process to me and had a lot of possibilities. You are correct that spray is for flat and horizontal but pulse spray can be used for vertical up and down as well as overhead.

PeteM wrote:Not saying you can't or shouldn't try that, simply that it might not be possible across the boards in a large manufacturing setting. One of the problems endemic to a large manufacturer is skill levels of the employees and how widely it can vary. You may be capable of this yourself, but others are not.

Here is Lincoln's guide for mig, pulsed stainless starts on p.32. https://locost7.info/files/tools/Lincol ... +Guide.pdf

When talking processes and improvement in manufacturing, its not just about the welding process. There are a whole slew of considerations, but mostly Its About Money. You have to present a compelling argument that makes sense and cents, then prove that it works as well on the floor as it does on paper. If you can do that in a way that isn't insulting to your superiors- they will do what you suggest. I was able to implement a series of procedures for fit up and weld-out of a large weldement in an assembly process that saved the line about 3hrs @ about $1K/hr= $3k/hr/shift X 3 shifts = 12k per day.

Be careful about your presentation and who you present to. A lot of shift supervisors hear stuff all day about how much better X would be if we did Y from whiney miscreants that always try to deconstruct a system without improvement in order to justify their crappy work and lack of performance. DON'T DO THAT! Prove Your Work Then Present A Solution.

And be patient. More often than not, even if your suggestion makes it past your direct supervisor (which it may not) it still has to move through the proper channels and be approved broadly. This takes a while. Maybe 3 mos., maybe 6. It's also usually very difficult to come up with an improvement, a Real improvement, in a well thought through process, because you are no longer dealing with just a welding process, you are dealing with an entire manufacturing process. The horizon is much bigger than the view through the hood.

Yep I hear you there. I’m gonna take some breaks during the shift and set up some pulse on som scrap and see if I can get some settings down and talk to my supervisor and see if he will let me try it out on some of the trailers and take it from there.

Farmwelding wrote:

Franz© wrote:I'm thinking you'll have a lot of trouble going to spray in anything other than flat position, and ESAB seems to back that thinking.
http://www.esabna.com/euweb/mig_handbook/592mig1_7.htm

Spray yes. I’m talking pulse spray which is an all posisiton mode of transfer. It is a rather cool process to me and had a lot of possibilities. You are correct that spray is for flat and horizontal but pulse spray can be used for vertical up and down as well as overhead.

Have you read Ed Craig on the subject of spray MIG SS?

Pulsed or not, SS has a larger molten pool than carbon steel, and SS cools slowly.

There seems to be some consensus as well you need well skilled operators or robots to become cost beneficial doing spray on SS.

I did some SS spray transfer with metal core on some heavier stuff. I think it was made by Esab, but it could have been Hyundia or Sandvik. I used 100% Argon, but I know it said 98/2 or 100% argon on the box. I don't know if you could weld non-horizontal with it.

Turbo wrote:I did some SS spray transfer with metal core on some heavier stuff. I think it was made by Esab, but it could have been Hyundia or Sandvik. I used 100% Argon, but I know it said 98/2 or 100% argon on the box. I don't know if you could weld non-horizontal with it.

I did end up doing some vertical down with it no problem on 10 Gauge and it worked for a second on overhead but then I believe we started having gas problems because we had never really used 98/2 before so there may have been some issues