[govind]

why do use tig welding in industries ?

[richard stewart 3rd]

Hi
Welcome to HotRodders.Com Glad to have you with us.

Tig is capable of achieving the highest quality welds & is the most versatile in terms of what can be welded & the position of the welds.
Rich

[302 Z28]

Also when done properly is the most presentable weld that does the least amount of heat damage.

Vince

[61bone]

Most industries don't use TIG welding. They use MIG, stick or carbon spot welding. TIG is used where ultra high quality welds are required and cost is not an issue. I used to build firetrucks. Where the welds were visible, they were TIGged. Hidden welds were MIGged. If all the welds in your Chevy were TIGs it would cost a hundred grand.
How about an intro?

[richard stewart 3rd]

Hi Bone,
Another way they keep cost down some is to use Tig in conjunction with Mig that is Do the root weld with Tig &
Mig for subsequent runs.
Rich

[CMR]

It's also the best for welding stainless.

[10Tonhammer]

I am a pipefitter/welder. I use use Stick and Tig pretty much exclusively. When welding pipe generally Tig is on critical process and extremly high pressures, The bead left in pipe from tig is much flater and doesn't get eroded buy steam as quickly and thick materials don't choke down the pipe diameter from build up. We also use it for stainless because stainless stick welding is extremely hard. Mig welding is used in shops and not in the field vary often at all.

Kris

[bentwings]

The shop I just finished working in used about 95 % TIG on everything up to 1 inch thick both stainless and mild steel. This was water purification and oil field machinery. Welds had to be excellent the first time and there were frequent inspections. Sometimes it seemed to take for ever to weld a 1 inch plate 10 feet long with TIG and all the inprocess inspections but what a mess if the weld got messed up. There were occasional excursions with MIG to speed the process but they usually met with disaster with porosity and cracked welds plus excessive cleanup.

Tig is hard to beat in the hotrod world. I weld eveything with TIG now. I don't even own a MIG anymore. I even welded new axels on my big gooseneck trailer with TIG outside no less.

[thirdmouse]

I've been wondering about TIG welding myself. From what I read, it looks like TIG welding takes longer and looks better. Is a TIG weld any stronger than a properly done MIG weld? Is TIG any better for welding thinner metal or sheet metal? I'm only a little bit familiar with MIG welding and I know how sheet metal takes some care to keep it from warping.

[pepi]

Originally Posted by thirdmouse

I've been wondering about TIG welding myself. From what I read, it looks like TIG welding takes longer and looks better. Is a TIG weld any stronger than a properly done MIG weld? Is TIG any better for welding thinner metal or sheet metal? I'm only a little bit familiar with MIG welding and I know how sheet metal takes some care to keep it from warping.

Taking longer and looking better is tig, industry will use tig on the front exposed side of a project and mig in the unseen areas, exactly because the mig is not the eye candy that the tig is. The ability to control the heat, not only can the welder adjust the heat on the fly it also allows finer, thinner metals to be welded with less warp. Tig also is the preferred method for aluminum welds, mig is capable, have not used one for that so I do not know how it may look I can only imagine ..
Mig and tig which is the better weld for strength, well I say no difference, both are used in industry, the advantage of mig robotic welds.. what is a strong permanent weld, one that is made with the correct heat applied to all three material, the joining metals and filler, which in turn will allow complete penetration .
The tig does use more in the way of consumables .
So it all comes down to a preference of the builder or the customer ...

[jagking]

What I have been told is that when tig welding everything has to be spotless even the smallest bit of surface rust or paint can affect it mig is a little bit more forgiving and stick even more so. This is just what I have been told by a welder at work its not from personal experience

[Dave5605]

You can weld more types of metals with TIG than other types of welding process. Stainless, nickel alloys, titanium, aluminum, magnesium, copper, brass gold, etc.

You can get pinpoint arc control. Think welding an IV needle to something else.
You can weld lot thinner material.

Other advantages are no flux/slag, no sparks, spatter, no smoke/fumes.

You can weld with no filler just by flowing the two pieces together (can do that with acetelene/oxygen setup too).

TIG is harder to learn, needs better hand/eye coordination.

You can set up AC tig welding to provide various levels of cleaning activity on things like aluminum where the least little amount of oxide or imputities will screw up the weld.

Yep, it has to be clean, clean, clean. Even using a regular carbon steel wire brush on aluminum you want to tig is a no-no. You use a stainless steel brush in this case.

I'd hazard to say most food processing equipment has to be tig welded.

TIG is a slower process. Can't deposit near the same amount of filler that you can with a MIG or rod welder.

Miller and Lincoln have some good books on welding processes for reasonable prices. Check out their respective sites.

[boredandglued]

you wont be disappointed ! it comes in so handy you will be suprised how often you will use it!

[bentwings]

As for speed I got to compare in a production environment an optimum set up TIG vs MIG. A well fixtured assembly.
10 piece assembly, 3/16 steel plate, 125 pounds, 130 1 1/2 welds.
TIG welding 250- 300 amps 8 hours a day, 20 minutes out for lunch. I got exactly 8 parts done per day. I did these parts for several weeks every day.
We then switched to MIG welding. Only the weld process was changed. I got exactly 16 parts per day so the MIG process was twice as fast. Because the parts were plenty big and heavy it was a real workout to have to roll the assembly over to weld the back side then lift them off the fixture and stack them up.

The MIG process was using spray arc so it is considerably faster than traditional CO2 arc. There is almost no clean up of weld spatter when spray arc is done correctly.

The rules were no undercuts and no spatter on the finished parts.