Daido Steel has produced a titanium wire that is claimed to create
greater arc stability with reduced porosity and spatter. This wire has
been produced by a novel wire production process, which modifies the
surface of the wire. When coupled with the use of pulsed parameters
excellent weld quality can be achieved. Traditionally titanium has been
welded with TIG or electron beam in all but the lowest quality
applications due to concerns associated with MIG welds.
TWI
carried out an extensive assessment of the welding characteristics of
this wire and compared it to the performance of standard commercially
available titanium wire. The new Daido wire was found to perform best
with pure argon shielding gas, whilst the conventional wire performed
best with pure helium. Overall, the novel wire demonstrated a smooth
wire feed and produced welds, which were straight and consistent, with
low spatter compared with the conventional wire.
Optical
examination showed the novel wire to be smoother and more consistent in
diameter. These characteristics are expected to reduce wear of the
contact tip and thus increase consistency of current pick-up, promoting
enhanced arc stability. As a result, the novel wire outperformed the
conventional wire with respect to arc stability, minimised spatter and
intrinsic weld metal porosity. Measurements of particulate fume and
ozone emissions were also very low compared with the conventional wire.
The
results demonstrate that with the novel wire improvements in MIG
welding of titanium can be achieved that make the process more
applicable to high productivity manufacture of quality titanium
structures.
Contact: www.daido.co.jp
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