A local supplier was given a spool of 0.045 ESAB Dual Shield 710X E71T-1, He said the vendor made some pretty bold claims about how it could make out of positon welds with high deposition rates and a wide sweet spot in operation parameters. The supplier asked me if I wouldn't mind running out the roll and giving him some feedback on how it performed.
As you can see by the data sheet here:
http://www.dualshieldx.com/documents/DSX-710x.pdf They claimed the stuff could run vertical upward progression @ 400 ipm with 100% C02 and 450 ipm with 75/25........ I was skeptical.
I made a series of 10" x 3/8 60 degree vee grooves with backing strips (A36) . I had enough grooves to do stringers and weaves with both C02 and 75/25. I started at the middle of the manufacturers parameter range and steadily increased.
Root passes
256 ipm and 23.6 Volts 100% CO2
300 ipm 22.8 Volts with 75/25...............The roots passes with both gasses went in perfectly and the profile was indestinguishable from a control pass in the flat positon.
Subsequent passes ran a little better with 1/2 volt above what was recommended by ESAB (on my Lincoln Powerwave 455)
I went right up the scale provided by ESAB and I'll be darned if that stuff diddn't run exactly as advertized.
I ran out of grooves quick at those rates, so I made up some Tee Fillets and it ran right up those at the maximum settings. Good control, good fusion, NO SPATTER. I varied the stickout from about 3/8 to 3/4 inch and it was forgiving and continued to weld nicely within that range.
I only did visuals to evaluate but it was really impressive... 450 ipm vertical up!
I'm not an FCAW expert but would like to hear from others who are.
Has anybody else used this stuff?