Spatter-Free Welding

If you’re welding sheet metal and using traditional welding equipment, you may have the opportunity to take advantage of the new Pulsed MIG technology to increase productivity, reduce cycle times, and lower part costs on the first pass.

Effective filling of the weld pool requires achieving good fusion at the same time. This process is achieved by controlling the following factors:

• Heat input
• Weld bead profile
• Arc start and stop
• Arc performance during welding
• Non-value-added activities (e.g., grinding and rework)

The critical point here is the importance of control. Traditional and older pulsed welding technologies cannot provide the advanced control features offered by the new technology. Today’s control algorithms, software, and microprocessors operate far more efficiently than technologies from five or ten years ago (as an example of advancements in digital cameras: while a two-megapixel camera was considered good five years ago, seven to ten megapixels have become the standard today). While thicker sections of metal may not require advanced control, sheet metal offers less leeway in terms of error tolerance but holds great potential for improvement.