You see these guys day in and day out for months at a time—I'm talking like 10 to 12 hours a day for six days a week. We all have bad days, but we just help each other through it. The way I look at it is, when I get ready to retire, I don't want to have to second-guess that retirement for financial reasons and have to go back to work. I do this to ensure that when I do retire, I'm truly retired. KA: You do have to be able to adapt and overcome a lot of different situations.
A pipe welder has to deal with the elements like cold, wind, extreme heat, and difficult terrain. The different metals that we weld—some of the pipe that we weld has different hardnesses.
You definitely don't want to take any shortcuts on postcleaning. Some guys who are a little slower than the guys in front and behind them will end up not cleaning their welds well enough. A lot of times out here, if you get three repairs then you're looking for a new job.
It's stressful. To be successful, Armentrout said you need to be able to weld in conditions that are less than ideal, including extreme heat or cold, vicious wind, and in awkward positions that make reaching the joint difficult. KA: I made the transition when my ophthalmologist told me that if I wanted to be able to see in my senior years that I would need to quit welding all day every day like I had been for the last 30 years. My eyes are a real light-blue color, and welding historically has always been really rough on people with light-colored eyes.
Hearing that news was a tough pill to swallow for me because all I have ever done since I was 12 is weld. But I took it in stride. I had always wanted to get my CWI, so I saw this as a perfect opportunity for me to go from the top of one ladder to the bottom of another.
It was probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my 47 years of life. I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to make it. I graduated from high school and I've got a little bit of college in background, but there's a lot of things in that CWI class and on the exam that I did not have exposure to, so I had to do some serious studying.
Fortunately, I was persistent and optimistic and I conquered that challenge. KA: Since I was a welder on the pipeline for 30 years, I know a lot of these guys whose work I'm inspecting.
But I also give them respect in return. I think that's a misconception a lot of people have, that once you become an inspector, you get to be high on the food chain. I respect the welders, and if they have a problem, I look at the situation they're in and we try to come up with a good solution, one that fits within the parameters of the guidelines that we have to go by as inspectors. TW: What are some things you wished you had known when you first started out as a pipeline welder?
KA: Take everything you hear with a grain of salt. In reality, those two years were only a few months and they got laid off. I think I learned the hard way to only believe half of what I hear but all that I see.
What helps is learning to trust what your brothers—your co-workers—have to say about a contractor. Reliability is also a consideration when it comes to the price of your welder. While the upfront cost may seem expensive, if you add up the costs of your operation and compare them with the savings you can make thanks to a longer-lasting, more reliable and high-quality welder, you will see the savings can quickly outweigh the costs.
We offer a vast range of products to the metal fabrication industry. Whatever you need from PWP Industrial you can count on us to consistently deliver. With our comprehensive stock line, we can ship to areas throughout the UK. We also work tirelessly to ensure that products are available to our customers at the shortest possible lead time. Ordering welding products has been made extremely easy with our new website, anyone can do it! Simply add an item to your enquiry basket and submit it to us — a member of our team will then be in touch with you to discuss your requirements and provide you with the best price.
Payment is simple too — we accept BACS payment and most major credit cards. If you need any further information about our welding machines, give us a call on or email us at [email protected] where a member of our highly knowledgeable team will be available to give their expert advice.
Passionate about supporting the professional welder and a demonstrated history of supplying products to the welding and fabrication industry, Richard is an invaluable asset to PWP Industrial and contributes toward the end goal of providing innovative solutions. When to use TIG: TIG is best used for smaller projects that require detail or clean, nice-looking welds, such as fences, gates, pipes, or sculptural work. Use TIG for beautiful, polished welds with specialized, expensive metals.
TIG is also popular for automotive and aerospace applications. Laser and electron beam welding are two methods that are less common but typically more expensive than TIG.
Both are capable of deep weld penetration due to their high energy densities, minimizing the size of the weld area and reducing the chance of distorting the surrounding metal. Laser beam welding uses concentrated beams of light to melt metals carbon steels, aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, and precious metals or thermoplastics together without the need for filler material. A separate nozzle directs a shielding gas, usually carbon dioxide, to the weld site.
Electron beam welding uses a tungsten filament, which is heated. The point gives off electrons that are accelerated and focused using electric fields and magnetic lenses. This produces tremendous kinetic energy, which is transferred to the base metal, heating it almost instantaneously.
However, this type of welding requires a vacuum chamber and, in turn, necessitates well-trained operators and attentive maintenance. While these methods have high equipment and maintenance costs, they can make up for it with quick welding speeds and productivity as well as automation capabilities.
These methods are great for industrial manufacturing use and can even save companies money in the long run with increased productivity but are ill-suited for personal projects. A specialized gun feeds a line of filler material to the joint, allowing for a seamless weld. A separate nozzle on the gun releases the shielding gas typically carbon dioxide as you weld.
MIG welding can be done with one hand or even set to an automatic mode. The electrode consists of a continuous feed of wire from a pre-stocked spool, which is automatically fed to the weld joint at a steady rate. MIG welding is ideal for constant joint and seam welding, without breaks or gaps, and is valued for its speed and dependability. Its initial equipment costs are more expensive than stick welders, and high-end options are comparable to TIG welders.
However, MIG welding is typically more cost-effective because of its high deposition rate and minimal waste. MIG welding is perfect for quickly finishing large projects that are simple in nature, though it is also capable of detailed work in the hands of a skilled welder. Easy to operate and with a high deposition rate, MIG welding is exceptionally cost-effective while producing strong and cosmetically acceptable welds.
It is particularly popular for manufacturing because you can keep going until the wire spool runs out or the gas tank is empty. Known as stick welding due to its usage of a stick-like electrode component, shielded metal arc welding SMAW is one of the oldest weld methods.
Unlike MIG and TIG, stick welding does not require a shielding gas because the electrode is covered in a shielding agent. As the electrode dissolves, its flux coating becomes a gas that protects and shields the weld pool from atmospheric forces. Therefore, stick welding does not require the purchase of supplemental, inert gas, and can be done in the worst of weather. Because of its exceptionally high heat, stick welding produces strong welds and works on the thickest of metals.
It is the only standard welding method that works on cast iron, for example. Unfortunately, it also produces a lot of slag, resulting in a messy, unfinished weld that will require a grinder or sander to polish. Compared to other methods, equipment for stick welding is cheap and has a low initial investment cost. When to use stick: Stick is best used for heavy, industrial purposes that utilize thicker metals and prioritize weld strength. Examples include welding together steel plates and beams and exterior structural welding.
Stick welds are not pretty and should not be used for delicate or detailed work. The process for flux-core welding is like MIG while implementing a shielding method akin to stick. It contains a consumable electrode, but thanks to the flux core, it does not require you to refill a gas tank. This method creates a lot of heat and is primarily used for heavier and thicker materials, such as in heavy steel construction. Because it does not require a gas tank, the welding apparatus itself is smaller and more transportable than a MIG welder.
The equipment for flux-core welding is more expensive and complicated than for stick welding. Still, increased productivity up to four times greater deposition rate can compensate for the cost.
When efficiency and time on task count the most, paying extra for a high quality TIG machine that is water-cooled will pay off in productivity. This feature allows you to use a pointed ceriated electrode at the right frequency with a very stable arc. The name of the game in TIG welding is high quality welds that are neat and very controlled.
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