Looking for input on pluse-arc welding

By sra

Date 03-04-2007 19:37

Re: Pluse arc on cs .045 hard wire 85-15 gas 1/4" continious single pass. Pre set factory suggestions 25-50-200(wfs). Looking for some input on the pluse-arc.
I enjoy reading Ed Carig's site. Until recient he downplayed the use of pluse arc. After he made some tests with the Miller 350P, deep in his site article he (ED) said had to change his view after 2006. The machine was cost effective and versitle on 1/4" or so weldments. He does have some issues with penetration, I looked in depth at his article and concluded--- it wasn't going to have the deposit of spray, but shouldn't have the cold lap or non fusion as you can sometimes deal with using short-arc.
We bought the machine prior to reading his downplayed articles, primarly because of its ablilty to have a slope adjustments not available on our Miller 452, and have since found other uses for the machine with ss mig.

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 03-04-2007 20:57

I like the Miller 350P and pretty much found the same results Ed did.

I would not say that GMAWP with proper settings had lesser deposit quality than traditional spray transfer.. GMAWP is a true spray transfer process that can (when properly applied) provide the same quality as traditional spray transfer in all positions where trad spray could only produce in flat and horizontal...
GMAWP can also provide spray transfer quality welds on materials considerably thinner than Traditonal spray transfer.

If you have the correct machine (Miller 350P or Lincoln Powerwave) you can put away your Tig machine for anything 0.050 and up! >manual semiautomatic< nothing has really been proven reliable over time in mechanized service. A shop that runs a wide variety of thicknesses can produce with a single wire size! Ed is not a big fan of the Lincoln Powerwave... He has seen them foul up in automated areas... I'm a big powerwave fan for manual semi-automatic... The GMAWP for stainless and Pulse on Pulse for Alum on the Lincoln Powerwave 355 is simply the best I've had my hands on at any price.

Until very recently the GMAW-P stuff on the market was very costly and rarely provided production consistantly as advertized...... Miller still sells XMT with the D64M programmable disaster feeder combo @ $10,000 per unit while the 350P can out perform it at less than 1/3 the price and it only has two bloody knobs.!

The 350P we had for demo was running 0.063 spatter free stainless fillets "overhead" with no burn thru, with spray transfer 20 minutes out of the box.

Having said that... If you are working with plain carbon steel in the flat and horizontal positions in thicknesses greater than 3/16" I still think you can get along just fine without the use of GMAWP equipment.