What is MIG welding?
Metal inert gas welding (MIG welding) is one of several welding techniques that use electricity to melt and join pieces of metal.
MIG welding is a sub-type of gas metal arc welding (GMAW) including followings:
Gas metal arc welding
Spray arc welding
Flux-cored arc welding
Short-circuit welding
2-Roll and 4-Roll wire feed assembly:
A 4-Roll system has two bottom rollers and two top rollers which gives a more st able wire feeding and is better at feeding softer alloy wires than a 2-Roll system. Some MIG welders also have geared 4-Roll systems which help to regulate wire feeding speed with great accuracy resulting in exceptionally smooth welds.
Spool gun
A spool gun is specialized piece of welding equipment. It is a self-contained gun that is used
feed aluminum wire from spools that mounted on the gun. It is recommended for softer wires and smaller diameters. It is very convenient and cost-effective for people who frequently switch between aluminum and steel welding.
Burn back control
This setting is used to adjust how long a wire is electrically energized after the wire has stopped being fed. If this control is not set properly, it can cause the wire to stick to the work piece.
How MIG welding works
When we use a MIG welding machine, spool-fed electrode wire is fed through a tensioning mechanism and into a co-axial supply line. This leads to a hand-held MIG welding torch. At the same time, a shield gas such as argon, carbon dioxide or mixture is fed along the same supply line to the torch. The gas protects the welding pool from atmospheric gases that would otherwise weaken the weld.
When the heat is removed, the weld pool cools, solidifies and form a new piece of fused metal-the weld is made.
Spot welding
This allows to set an amount of time machine will weld when trigger is pressed. When you press the trigger a spot weld is carried out and then machine stops, release and press trigger again to produce another spot weld.
Arc force
Low setting means less penetration and low splatter, used for the thinner materials, such as car body repair. High setting means penetration and more splatter, used for thicker materials.
Soft start
When the trigger is pressed the wire comes out from torch slowly, usually slower than set wire feeding speed. When wire touches the work piece and arc is started, machine senses this and increases the wire feeding speed up to setting of speed. This can stop torch jerk when starting a weld and also produces a better start to the weld.
Synergic control
It makes the setting of MIG mode easier, we just set the welding current similar as MMA or TIG welding, and machine will calculate the optimal voltage and wire feeding speed according material type, wire type and size, thickness and shield gas automatically.
Advantages of MIG welding
Welding speed is fast.
MIG welding is suitable for joining many different metals and metal thickness.
All-position welding includes horizontal, vertical and flat welding with confidence.
High-deposition MIG welding enables long weld passes, faster welding and increased productivity.
A good weld bead.
A minimum of weld splatter.
Continuously wire feeding allows we may use all electrode during MIG welding in order to avoid waste of electrode.
MIG welding is easy to learn, and it allows automation welding.
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