Blog

The Importance of Welding Surface Preparation

28 March, 18 8:00 pm · Leave a comment · Red-D-Arc Welderentals
Share
Facebooktwitterlinkedinmail

By guest blogger David H.

welding surface preparationHaving worked in shipyards for seven years, I’m familiar with how dirty this type of job site can be. Ship repair worksites and welding surfaces are often filthy with rust, dust and other contaminants. Even in shops and yards where fabrication is ongoing, cleanliness is often lacking. If fabricated or refurbished pieces are being installed onboard, the surface to which the piece will be welded could be rusty, coated with scale, or have other types of corrosion.

It is hard to overstate the importance of having a clean surface when welding. Welds made on unclean surfaces can become contaminated and fail; this is especially true with certain metals, such as aluminum, and certain types of welding, such as TIG, but for all welds at least some level of cleanliness is important.

Methods and Equipment

There are numerous methods available for cleaning surfaces. The most basic are simple wire brushes and scrapers; these are ineffective beyond removing common dirt and simple surface contamination. Some hand-held tools, such as grinders and reciprocating needles are slightly more effective.

A surface that is properly prepared by blast cleaning can help you ensure fewer problems with weld quality.

Deeper cleaning processes can help to ensure high-quality welds. This is particularly important where a failed weld could be costly or create shipboard dangers for the crew. For corroded or contaminated surfaces something stronger is required. Some of the best systems available are blast cleaners. Red-D-Arc has a number of blast cleaning rental options. Dry-ice cleaning systems are environmentally sustainable, non-destructive, and use inexpensive, readily available dry-ice pellets. Recycled glass systems, which reduce dust by as much as 95% compared to dry-blasting, are available too.

Take a look at our selection of  rental blast cleaners which can powerfully clean up the dirtiest weld surface. A surface that is properly prepared by blast cleaning can help you ensure fewer problems with weld quality.

Fast, Efficient Flux-Cored Welding with Semi-Automatic Wirefeeders

29 January, 18 8:23 pm · Leave a comment · Red-D-Arc Welderentals
Share
Facebooktwitterlinkedinmail

flux cored welding with semi automatic wirefeeder
By guest blogger David H.

Some years back I was working in a shipyard in San Francisco. The yard had several small repair jobs going, plus a fairly large project building six ocean-going barges. The supervisor who was in charge of the barge-building project was looking for volunteers to operate semi-automatic wire feeders, using flux-cored wire, to weld stiffeners to the skin of the barges. I had never used a wire feeder before, so I volunteered out of curiosity.

After a very short training period, possibly all of 30 minutes but I think a bit less, I was off and running. I was impressed by the quality of the welds and the speed at which they were deposited. Without question I was outpacing anything that could be done by stick welding, and I felt it was easier to maintain a uniform weld size too. The machine itself was light enough and small enough to move without difficulty, and the spools of wire lasted long and were quick and easy to replace when the spool of welding wire was finished.

Red-D-Arc has nearly a dozen semi-automatic wire feeders available for almost any application. We also carry fully automatic wire feeders, which are faster still and appropriate in certain circumstances – like building storage tanks –  especially for large-deposition welds.

Stainless Steel Welding: Details That Matter

14 November, 17 8:20 pm · Leave a comment · Red-D-Arc Welderentals
Share
Facebooktwitterlinkedinmail

drilling platformBy guest Blogger Katarzyna K.

Katarzyna has an Msc in Materials Science and has worked in the oil and gas industry in jobs related to hydraulics, welding and the retrofitting of oil rigs.

Stainless steel is used extensively in the petrochemical industry due to its high resistance to severe conditions. When welding inox steels, the smallest details matter and have an impact on weld quality. The following are some tips for stainless steel pipe welding based on my oil rig repair experience:

During an oil rig repair project that involved 2205 duplex stainless steel pipe TIG welding, we could not achieve the required weld properties. Despite using the recommended filler metal with higher nickel content, compared to the base metal, and controlling the interpass temperature, the weld tensile strength was still too low. In order to reach the required weld quality we dug deeper and found a solution – (more…)

AirGas Logo

Airgas, an Air Liquide company, is the nation's leading single-source supplier of gases, welding and safety products. Known locally nationwide, our distribution network serves more than one million customers of all sizes with a broad offering of top-quality products and unmatched expertise.