heli arc

Date 11-10-2005 15:04

"heli arc" is another name for TIG. It's proper name is GTAW, or Gas Tungsten Arc Welding. The "heli" in heli arc comes from the shielding gas helium that was used.

By PhilThomas (**)

Date 11-10-2005 15:04

Heli-Arc is the original tradename for GTAW (tig). The original shielding gas was helium, giving it the "Heli" designation.

By bmaas1

Date 11-10-2005 18:09

I believe it was a Linde or L-Tec trade name.

Brian

By Ken Dougherty (**)

Date 11-11-2005 03:37

Back in the mid-60's, I worked for Linde, which was a division of Union Carbide. They produced gases, associated welding equipment, and did a lot of cryogenic work. Heliarc was the name of their GTAW (TIG) machine that was initially developed for welding aluminum I believe, and used helium as the shielding gas. That trade name stuck to the process for a long time and even now, some of people who grew up during that period still call the process heliarc.

By Anthony James (*)

Date 11-11-2005 11:07

Thankyou all for responce.
Cheers AJ

By ssbn727 (*****)

Date 01-08-2006 05:33

Greetings Anthony James!

I would encourage you and others on this thread to check out the history of thermal joining website or do a google search online and look for the link: "History of welding" associated with miller welding equipment. You'll find the accurate history of "Heli-Arc welding".

The reason I'm not posting the website is because when I initially did, I went back to it to test if it would function off this thread, and it did not!

Just in case no one wants to go flying around in cyberspace looking for this info, I'm taking the liberty to post it here:

"Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) had it's beginnings from an idea by C. L. Coffin to weld in a non-oxidizing gas atmosphere, which he patented in 1890. The concept was further refined in the late 1920s by H.M. Hobart, who used heium for shielding, and P.K. Devers, who used argon. This process was ideal for welding magnesium and also for welding stainless and aluminum."

"It was perfected in 1941, patented by Russell P. Meredith who worked for Northrup aircraft where it was further developed and named "Heliarc" welding. It was later licensed to Linde Air Products, where the water cooled torch was developed."

I hope this excerpt will end the confusion related to where the trademark "Heliarc" originated from, and I hope this will also answer your query Anthony.

Respectfully,
SSBN727
Run Silent... Run Deep!!!

By thirdeye (***)

Date 01-10-2006 22:48

Hi SSBN727,

Very informative post. For years I have admired the skill level of many tig hands so I bought a DC stick/tig machine for my home workshop last year. I should change my handle to "thirdhand" because for me, one extra would sure come in handy ;)

~thirdeye~

By ssbn727 (*****)

Date 01-16-2006 21:08

Hey Thirdeye!

Sorry for not responding sooner...

Is'nt that the truth about wishing to have a third hand to use for welding in certain situations!!!!!

I could'nt even begin to say how many times I personally been in those situations and yet, still managed to get the job done anyway.

My personal opinion as to how I managed to complete some of these seemingly impossible welding jobs is in certain circles at the very least, very likely to raise some eyebrows... Then again, It's just my own personal opinion.

I VERY STRONGLY believe that God had a lot to do with helping me out on these jobs, and that is not to say that he was'nt present all of the time during my welding career or any other time for that matter because, I know now that he's always there for us whether we believe in the Holy Spirit or not!!!

I DO very much remember that I felt a sense of ultimate calm, that everything seemed to slow down, and I felt as if I was in some sort of protective shield (I felt the same during my liver transplant operation, only that he was much more clearly present)...

I can try my best in an attempt to describe how it felt to be surrounded by the Holy Spirit but, I cannot put together the words to convey the experience... I can only say that it happened to me more than once in work or many other situations where a "third hand" was definitely needed, and definitely was there in order to help me successfully complete the seemingly impossible welding jobs in my career.

So I guess the moral of this story is: God is always with you whether you know it or not and, if you need an extra hand to complete a job or to get through any crisis, the Holy Spirit will always be there
for us. All we have to do is ask for his help.

Finally, I hope I did'nt offend anyone in this forum for expressing my personal opinion in this post.

Respectfully,
SSBN727
Run Silent... Run Deep!!!

By - Date 01-16-2006 22:20

Offend anyone??? Brother, I commend you in your convictions and for not being ashamed to relay your beliefs in God. I admire that !!! Like you, I hope I didn't offend anyone, but if I did.........

CM

By backpurge (*)

Date 11-11-2005 13:02

"Back in the mid-60's, I worked for Linde, which was a division of Union Carbide."

Ken greetings from across the pond, I currently work for Linde in the UK, you probably had sense getting out when you did (joking)

By Ed Kay Date 11-13-2005 17:59

In the mid '60s I used heli-arc to weld aluminum. It seems to me now that it was the same as mig welding, as I can't recall any tungston rod for the arc. I believe there was a wire (aluminum) spool built into the welding handle,controlled by a finger switch. The shielding gas was helium. Of course this was 40 years ago and I was then in the Army, so some of this may be hazey.
Ed

By phred Date 11-13-2005 20:41

Heli-Arc is a brand name, like Ford or Dodge. They produce welding equipment and supplies. They were developers of the tungsten inert gas welding process. Use of the name as a generic term just indicates a lack of education.

By SA-200

Date 11-13-2005 23:45

Linde developed TIG process and called it Heli-Arc during WW2 for welding on airplanes parts.

By texredneck (**)

Date 01-07-2006 05:05

I agree with SA 200's idea on this. I was always told it was heli-arc by the union carbide company which later became linde, or was linde in some form, devoloped as a way to better join thin alum during WWII. Very simple form of the process at that time of course and helium was the shielding gas.

By Brainfarth (*)

Date 01-17-2006 11:38

I recently worked for a place that manufactured S.S. tanks of sorts for the wine and beer industries. They seam welded light gauge plates (10ga on down) with S.S. wire being fed into TIG (they called it heli arc) arc with helium as the gas. I asked why they didn’t use argon and they told me that they couldn’t get consistently good results. Would this process still be called TIG with helium shielding? I thought I read somewhere that it takes quite a few more volts to get the same weld size compared to argon. Is this true when welding stainless with helium gas shielding?

By texredneck (**)

Date 01-17-2006 17:48

Its called tig regardless of the shielding gas. It was only called Heliarc as a trade name at the time. But its kinda like coke. Coke is a brand..and to some of down in texas coke is a soda pop. But again for reiteration the TIG is tig regardless of shielding gas. GTAW is always GTAW as long as its being used ith a shielding gas and tungsten :D

By - Date 01-17-2006 20:47

Yes, the process would still be called TIG, (T)ungsten (I)nert (G)as. Short for GTAW, like MIG is short for GMAW.

By - Date 01-17-2006 20:50

One last thing...Using helium as the shielding gas, it tends to wear down the tungsten causing the possibility of tungsten inclusions. Be careful..

By texredneck (**)

Date 01-17-2006 21:28

Chuck,
anything that can be done procedurally to reduce this? Perhaps the way you grind the tunsten or something?
CHRIS

By - Date 01-18-2006 00:07

Chris,
Please forgive me...I was wrong in stating that helium was detrimental to the tungsten in large volumes. I meant to say NITROGEN, not helium. I'm very sorry. Must be having another one of those brain lapses which are happening more frequently here lately....Sorry for the misstatement.

By texredneck (**)

Date 01-18-2006 02:41

Oh ok its ok Chuck. I always learn something new so as long as you dont let me wander off to far at a time im ok. So are you implying nitorogen is used as a shielding gas? or a mix. I cant remember seeing it, but that dont mean ditly....

By - Date 01-18-2006 04:02

Nitrogen is more commonly used as a purge gas. Many refineries use pure nitrogen to purge lines because they make nitrogen so it is readily available. For example, when welding a duplex material, up to approximately 3-5% nitrogen is used with argon as the shielding in the TIG process. More than 5% N will present the possibility of tungsten breakdown. Also, N is a strong austenite former so when welding stainless steel, that needs to be considered. Increasing the austenite phase also means lowering the ferrite phase and in some cases that is not acceptable. That is the negative side of nitrogen. The positive side of using N is that it improves tensile strength and has a beneficial effect on resistance to pitting and crevice corrosion. This is more evident in TIG because the tungsten is the non-consumable electrode. This effect does not necessarily effect GMAW since in MIG, the wire is consumed in the weld pool. In MIG, when using N, the main concern is the increase of austenite.

By texredneck (**)

Date 01-18-2006 13:55

Thanks Chuck, Ive heard the purge thing...never seen it used. Dint know the rest of the info so thanks