Welding Electrodes and Types

1. Wielding Electrodes and Types. A welder needs an electrode to get an electrical current to do arc welding. In welding, an electrical current is conducted through associate conductor that is used to join the parent metals. Once you keep electrode tip close to the parent metal current jumps from the electrode tip to the parent metal. The Main purpose of electrodes used in welding is to form an electric arc. These electrodes can be positively charged anode or they can be negatively charged cathode. Consumable Electrodes Consumable electrodes have low melting point. These kinds of welding electrodes are preferred to use in Metal inert gas (MIG) welding. for creating consumable electrodes, materials like mild steel and nickel steel are used. The one precaution that you simply should take is to replace consumable electrodes after regular intervals. the sole disadvantage of using such electrodes is that they don’t have a large range of business applications however at the same time they're simple to use and maintain. Consumable electrodes are classified as: - bare Electrodes - Coated Electrodes Bare Electrodes Bare conductors are electrodes with none kind of coating and principally utilized in applications wherever there's no would like of coated electrode. Coated Electrodes Coated electrodes are classified consistent with the coating issue. Coating issue is that the magnitude relation of the diameter of the conductor to the diameter of the core wire. Non-Consumable Electrodes These types of welding electrodes are referred to as Refractory electrodes. There are two-more sub- types of non-consumable electrodes: As the name suggests, these types of welding electrodes don't seem to be consumed within the entire welding process or we can say more suitably that they do not melt throughout welding. however practically, because of the vaporization and oxidation processes taking place throughout welding there's a bit reduction within the length of the electrode. The non-consumable electrodes have high melting point and are unable to fill the gap within the work-piece. Non-consumable electrodes are made up of materials like pure tungsten, graphite or carbon coated with copper. The melting point of carbon is 3350 C which of tungsten is 3422 degree Celsius. Non-consumable electrodes are utilized in tungsten inert gas welding (TIG) and carbon arc welding. Important Characteristics of Non-Consumable Electrodes:

2. While using non-consumable electrodes you've got to use shielding gases. The shielding gases are inert gases and therefore the reason behind to use them is to shield welding space from oxygen and surrounding atmosphere. The non-consumable electrodes are typically created as cathode and the work-pieces as anode. Precautions that you simply should take while handling welding electrode: You must always keep electrodes dry. As wet destroys electrode coating and is extremely harmful for electrodes. So, as soon as electrodes get dried, you need to keep welding electrodes in moisture free surroundings. There are varied containers on the market which give you moisture free experience. Last however not the least, never bend the electrodes as bending will damage electrode coating. In short, once reading this article you must get a transparent data about differing kinds of welding electrodes, classification system of welding electrodes, etc.