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Up Topic Welding Industry / Technical Discussions / thoriated electrodes & health
- - By - Date 11-03-2000 11:09
What is the latest position on the use of thoriated (2% thorium) electrodes in TIG welding?
(1) Is the usage of these electrodes legal/permitted?
(2) What are the potential health effects?
(3) What are the relevant exposure limits?
(4) What are the substitutes (eg- Ceriated electrodes), and how good are they?

Dr.M.NarasimhaMurthi
Occupational Health Service
BHEL
Tiruchirapalli-620 014, INDIA
<mnmurthi@bheltry.co.in>
Parent - By - Date 12-30-2000 01:16
I am a metallurgical/welding engineering at a FAA repair station. We switched from thoriated to 1.5% lanthanated about 5 years ago. I tried the ceriated but found the lanthanated to perform better on our automated plasma arc welders. I found the lanthanated to be a little better than the thoriated. Our manual welders could not tell the difference.

I think the greatest harm is from the dust generated when grinding the electrodes.
Up Topic Welding Industry / Technical Discussions / thoriated electrodes & health

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