Sunday, May 8, 2016

How Stainless Steel Welding Is Done

By Debra Wood


Welding is deemed to have taken place when two metal pieces are joined together using heat that is usually applied on the pieces and it can be used in craft projects, auto repairs, boats and at homes. Every type of metal is usually joined using distinct methods from the other. Below are the steps to be followed during the process of stainless steel welding.

Ensuring that your safety is guaranteed should be the first thing you do before attempting to start on any work. You should ensure that you get protective clothing like shirts and pants that ought to be full-length and exposing only some little skin. It is also advisable to have on some protective ear and eye protection and also gloves.

There are various joining methods that you ought to choose for the base metals. The most common of these joining methods are the edge, T, lap, butt and corner. In order to choose the best method, you should consider the thickness of the metal you wish to weld, the strength required for the job and the joint accessibility.

The welding process that would be most appropriate for you to use ought to be considered. You can choose from the following processes gas tungsten arc or GTAW, shielded metal arc, SMAW, gas metal arc, GMAW, flux cored arc, FCAW. You could also look at getting an inert gas that would be compatible to the process you choose from these except for the SMAW, for the others you will choose from argon to helium.

You will also need to get filler metal in case you will be joining two metals that are the same. You should make sure that the base metal you end up with would emulate the composition of the base metals. If the metals to be joined are not similar, then you ought to ensure that you choose a filler metal that would have the least cracking chances and it also ought to be compatible with the base metal.

After that you should ensure that you clean your base metal to eliminate the chance of oxides forming on your base metal. You should use a brush made of stainless steel wire to gently brush the base metal to remove any burrs and existing oxides. Ensure you also wear protective gloves to ensure that you do not transfer any oils that could be on your hands onto the stainless steel.

Your next step would be to make sure that the metal you are using is brought to the room temperature. This preheating is only carried out on ferritic and martensitic metals only as the austenic metal does not need to be preheated to the room temperature. You should also make sure that you preheat the metal you have if it has carbon that is thick and also high.

Lastly, you should apply the welding torch to the two pieces of metal you would be welding together. You should also see to it that you also apply some post heating after the process as this metal cools down rapidly causing lots of internal stress which could lead to cracking. The post-heating process is therefore essential to eliminate chances of cracking and especially more so when thick metal pieces are joined together. Ensure that you remove any slag that is left on the weld spot.




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