Humidity & Tig

Date 08-02-2004 20:15

Does anybody know what effects a shops humidity has on tig welding of 304,309 & 316 stainless? A customer is replacing air conditioning in their tig shop with an evaporative cooler (swamp cooler). The air flow would remain the same but the humidity would increase.

By RonG

Date 08-03-2004 12:06

Well here in Houston it causes sweat to run down in to your eyes and burn like hell and that really makes for some poor welding.

Also your hands tend to sweat in your gloves and that can get exciting at times but as far as affecting the the weldment, I don't know of any ill affects.

By Niekie3 (***)

Date 08-04-2004 17:44

Hi

Because you have total shielding of the weld puddle with inert (dry) gas during TIG welding, humidity should not make a big difference, unless it leads to some sort of condensation on the cold plate before welding commences.

A bigger problem will be with SMAW welding rods that you will have to make sure are kept dry in a hot-box following baking.

Regards
Niekie Jooste
Fabristruct Solutions

By thirdeye (***)

Date 08-04-2004 19:10

Niekie,

Condensation should not be a problem. This room is dedicated for TIG use only. The thought is that evaporative coolers will be much more cost effective than air conditioning and combined with an exhaust system, the air turnover can be better controlled. When the outside temperature drops, the coolers could run on fan only (without the water circulation) This shop is above 5000' elevation in the Rockies, where there is low humidity to start with.

Thanks for the input