Aluminum Wire Feed

Date 04-29-2009 19:33

We are running an automated TIG system that is pushing 1/16" aluminum wire. We have found that the 1/16" contact tips don't work all that well due to the soft nature of aluminum. It doesn't seem to want to feed smoothly through the tip. What we've been doing is using a 1/16" contact tip and drilling it out to 3/32 to suit our needs. I have a couple questions...

1. Is there a manufacturer that makes 3/32" contact tips for automated TIG wire feed machines such as Jetline and AMET?
2. Since we are running mostly Al-Cu alloys like 2210 or 2014, I'm assuming that there's no cause for concern for using a copper contact tip when feeding wire correct?

Thanks.

By SCweld

Date 04-29-2009 20:41

I can't help you as to where to find the tips but I had a similiar problam a couple of years ago. We were using .035 ER4043 and were going through a lot of contact tips. The Lincoln salesman said the rule of thumb is you should go 50% larger on contact tips for aluminum as the wire tends to expand more than steel or stainless. So we switched to an .052 tip and the problem has pretty much went away. This was Al MIG though and I do notice the wire comes out a little erratic through that bigger orifice. I might be concerned with the erratic behavior on the TIG. I know this doesn't answer the questions you had but I just thought I'd throw it in.