meaning of manual metal welding

Date 04-24-2008 01:11

I believe you are correct. Manual Metal Arc Welding (British) is the same as Shielded Metal Arc Welding (American).

Best regards - Al

By Kix

Date 04-24-2008 16:32

Then you also have MAG (metal active gas) which is GMAW (MIG) over here in the states.

By HgTX

Date 04-24-2008 18:58

It's supposed to be MIG/MAG over here in the U.S. but no one bothers. Most GMAW that I've come across is technically MAG, not MIG, but everyone still calls it MIG anyway.

Hg

By hogan

Date 04-24-2008 19:31

It's supposed to be MIG/MAG over here in the U.S. but no one bothers.

do you have a reference for this requirement?

By HgTX

Date 04-24-2008 19:49

It's not a matter of requirement, it's a matter of what the terms stand for. MIG stands for Metal Inert Gas. If you're using a CO2 mixture, you're not using an inert gas; it's not MIG any more, no matter how many people still call it that. "MIG/MAG" takes care of both cases, if you want to call it something along those lines, but GMAW does too, and it's the official AWS-sanctioned term.

Hg

By hogan

Date 04-24-2008 20:33

ok. so it is a non-standard term for a type of gmaw. is that correct?

By MDG Custom Weld (***)

Date 04-24-2008 20:37

I agree with Hogan. Mig, Mag, and anything else along those lines are non-standard terms anyway. It should always be GMAW to be code correct. GMAW does not care it it's inert or active.

By Shane Feder (****)

Date 04-25-2008 11:17

Hi guys,
Just to confuse. It is a standard term in Britain / Europe.
In fact EN287 Part1 (European equivalent of ASME IX lists MIG and MAG as separate processes ?????
Regards,
Shane

By MDG Custom Weld (***)

Date 04-25-2008 11:35

Having done a fair amount of European work, I do agree with that statement from Shane.

No disrespect meant to any of our welding colleagues from outside the States but this is the AWS forum and here Mig/ Mag is a nonstandard term for GMAW.

Maybe it's time to get the AWS, CWB, EN, and all other worldly welding bodies together to form the world welding alliance and have a code that could be used/ applied anywhere in the world? It's a long shot to say the least, but it could be done?

By Stephan (***)

Date 04-25-2008 19:04

Hi Mark,

it's a mess by just having a minute for the forums but I stumbled directly into your great statement:

Maybe it's time to get the AWS, CWB, EN, and all other worldly welding bodies together to form the world welding alliance and have a code that could be used/ applied anywhere in the world? It's a long shot to say the least, but it could be done?

I entirely agree since I guess it's time to perfom this!

Admittedly there exists somewhat towards a general standard which is the ISO 4063 (Welding and allied processes - Nomenclature of processes and reference numbers). There's the whole bunch of all known welding or joining processes to be seen inside this paper. Well-known even as exotic ones :-).

By the way and to agree with Shane and some others. Here in Europe - under the valid European Standard's (EN = Euronorm) influence, we summarize the processes of "your" Gas Shielded Metal Arc Welding Processes by using the term: MSG (Metall-Schutzgas-Schweißen) and differentiate subsequently the respective characters of shielding gases used "Inert" = MIG (Metall Inert Gas) and "Active" = MAG (Metall Aktiv Gas).

Best regards,
Stephan

P.S. To reply on the thread initiator's question by quoting Prof. John Norrish from his famous book "Advanced Welding Processes":

"The SMAW process is also known as MMA (manual metal arc welding) in Europe and is still referred to as "Stick" welding in the UK fabrication industry".

By HgTX

Date 04-25-2008 14:25

MIG and MAG in the US are both non-standard terms for GMAW. However, using "MIG" as a colloquial synonym for GMAW isn't just non-standard but technically incorrect. That said, I hear "MIG" far, far more often than I hear "GMAW", even though in most cases it's really MAG. (I guess it's shorter to say, and "MAG" sounds too much like magnetic particle testing.) I often use it myself, because if everyone else around me is saying it, I feel like a dork with the mouthful "gee-em-ay-dubble-yoo".

I just found it interesting that in the UK they *do* say MAG.

Hg

By hogan

Date 04-25-2008 14:39

It's amazing that you can go into a code fab shop to perform inspection and nobody know what your talking about when you ask for a gmaw wps. It's not until you ask for the mig procedure that they understand you. I think this process has the most non standard names. perhaps there should be a companion to the FC-2008 "non-standard terms and definitions"

By HgTX

Date 04-25-2008 14:47

For most of the others, we have nice short nicknames. Stick, subarc, flux-core.

I was just in Italy, and they pronounce the acronym: gmav, fkav, sav, smav. One syllable. Handy. I don't see it catching on the US though.

Hg

By Shane Feder (****)

Date 04-26-2008 10:22

HgTX,
Just finished 5 months in the Philippines and I never could get my mouth around the processes.
S.A.W was pronounced Sow
S.M.A.W was pronounced Smow
G.T.A.W was pronounced Gitow
F.C.A.W was pronounced Ficow
G.M.A.W was pronounced Gimow

Cheers,
Shane

By 803056

Date 04-26-2008 18:09

Your getting too close to the fumes exhaust near that nickel smelter Shane! ;)

Best regards - Al

By valoman (*)

Date 05-02-2008 17:43

Junbao Zhang,

concerning the classification of the welding processes according to the degree of mechanisation DIN 1910 Part 1 and 2 uses three parameters. These concern the type of motion of the:
1) Guidance of torch or workpiece
2) Filler metal
3) Handling of the workpiece
Then the cases distinguished are:
a) MANUAL WELDING using symbol "m" (all three types pf motions are manual), eg MMA and TIG
b) PARTLY MECHANISED WELDING using symbol "t" (the filler metal feed is mechanised), eg MIG, MAG or even some type of TIG
c) FULLY MECHANISED WELDING using symbol "v" (only the handling of the work piece is done manually)
d) AUTOMATIC WELDING using symbol "a" (all three different types of motion are mechanised)

Regards, Valoman.

By Superflux (****)

Date 05-03-2008 11:34

"Maybe it's time to get the AWS, CWB, EN, and all other worldly welding bodies together to form the world welding alliance and have a code that could be used/ applied anywhere in the world? It's a long shot to say the least, but it could be done? "
Got 2 words for ya..........GOOD LUCK....As with most of the Trades, welding is steeped with tradition and non-standardized terminology (I think me and some friends have coined a few ourselves). We can't get the populace of the U.S. to embrace the simple and efficient metric system due to a myriad of excuses. Our government has spent untold $$$millions trying to interject metrics into the schools, hiway signs, car instrument panels etc.
Perhaps us in the private sector could standardize welding lingo with minimal personal and financial investment? Hmmmmmmm
I am reminded of an incident a few years ago when our highly inexperienced welders were having difficuties making their GMAW welds on water tanks sound enough to hold gravel. I was in the process of instructing one of the newly "certified welders" to repair some leaking areas for the third time, when he informed me that this time he was going to "arc weld" his repairs. After about 8 minutes of futile explainations, two of his buddies hopped on his band wagon. No amount of technically acurate AWS sanctioned definitions, common sense or history lessons could convince the 3 of them that SMAW and "arc welding" were not exclusively synonomous. Some days this business is like using a brick wall for a punching bag....it just feels so good when you stop.....AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH.............