I am trying to implement a MIG procedure for welding carbon steel pipe in our shop. We do mostly sch 40 from 2" up to 18" currently using a 6010 root, 7018 hot, fill & cover. Rather than re-invent the wheel I am looking for tips on procedures for using either a solid core or flux core MIG system to root, hot, fill & cover. Preferrably out of position as most of the spools we build have about a 2 to 1 ratio of position to out of position welds (the spools are too cumbersome to roll).
I have been working with Lincoln's new STT on piping in your range.
You might want to look at .045" solid ER70S3 set at 160 IPM using straight CO2 and vertical down. This modern and well engineered version of short arc may be the ticket for a shop changing gears from stick. It is unusually user friendly and will provide good fusion in the thickness range you stated. It is great for out of position welding.
Your welders may take the better part of the week learning how to use the machine. Incidentally the .045" wire at that setting will be around 4.4lbs per hour deposition. More than doubling what you are doing now.
For calculators that might help you determine what to do visit my website www.sterlingwelddata.com under products.
By -
Date 09-02-2000 17:13
CONTACT www.weldreality.com and check out Management Engineers Guide to MIG, ALL YOUR MIG AND FCAW PIPE DATA IS IN BOOK, ED CRAIG
A setup that I have used is .035 solid wire short arc for the root pass and .045 pulsed metal core wire for the fill and cap. The STT is good for the root pass but too slow for the fill and cap. Miller Electric makes a dual 60M feeder that will allow one gun to run the .035 in short arc and the other gun to do the .045 metal core in the puls mode. Metal core wire gives higher deposition rates with out added heat input than solid wire or flux cored wire, thus cutting down on labor costs. An 85% argon 15% co2 gas can be used for both wires.
