Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) Welding is a popular and common form of welding. Those who have used this welding technique before very well realize the advantages it carries over normal MIG Welding or old-fashioned stick welding. Most people use this TIG welding as their primary welding process because of the high degree of precision and control over all metals. The foot pedal and finger-tip remote allow you full control over the flow of electrons. This will allow your welding process to start and stop with a soft weld. With the right skill set, TIG welding can produce precise and accurate results.
TIG welding is a highly recommended welding technique due to its versatile welding technology. This welding technology is used in several fields, from aerospace to medicine and pharmaceutics. The skill of the operator depends on the strength the welding provides. Plus, the shielding gas used during the TIG Welding is an inert gas. This inert gas does not affect the welding process at all. Usually, this gas is argon, which protects the welding metal as well as the electrode in the torch.
Once the welding process is done, the inert gas also helps cool off the tungsten and weld puddles. This cooling process is necessary as it protects the environment from unnecessary accidents.
Contents
TIG Welding Applications
The TIG Welding process is especially used when you are welding a sensitive, expensive, thin, and exotic metal. Here the heat management offered by TIG welding is not offered by any other manual welding process. So for joining these thin pieces of stock metals, welders usually use tig. However, when you are welding some thick metals, it benefits from TIG because you can use a pointy arc. You can also crank up the amperage output by using helium shielding gas which results in an exceptional amount of heat concentration used for deep penetration of metal.
With the TIG technique, the heat management of the welding process goes both ways. The low energy input is also beneficial, or you can concentrate as much energy as your machine wishes. This point makes the TIG the most versatile welding process for all thickness metals and different heat conductivity levels.
Pipelines and pipe welding are the most important applications for TIG Welding. This welding is used in many industries, especially the aerospace industry. Then comes the sheet metal industry, where TIG is used in welding thin metals like titanium.
TIG Welding goes both ways, manual and mechanized. Welding robots are also a unique technique used in TIG welding.
Welding Pipes: TIG welding is highly common in welding pipes, and these pipes are used in construction industries, oil and gas industries, and automotive industries.
Related: Process to become pipeline welder
Aerospace: The aerospace industry heavily depends on TIG welders to produce solid joints and specialty alloys. With the precision and versatility of TIG welding, we can build and repair helicopters, spaceships, and airplanes with mechanized structures.
Transportation: Because of the increased use of aluminum in the transportation industry, TIG welding is also widespread. Cars, vans, and trucks are made more of aluminum than steel.
Food and Beverage:
Maximum precision in welding is required by the food industry. There should be no tiny places or cracks where the bacteria can grow. Because of the anti-corrosion quality of stainless steel, most food and beverage containers are made of stainless steel.
TIG Welding Is Used For Which Materials
Usually, the unusual and more exotic metals are gone through TIG welding. Though you can TIG weld almost any metal, you desire.
Aluminum
Aluminium TIG Welding is the most recommended method to weld aluminum. As it forms surface oxides immediately when exposed to air, so it is a very complex metal to weld. As you know, Aluminum oxide melts higher than Aluminum; the welding process becomes hard. TIG welding was introduced to solve this very issue in Aluminum metal welding, and AC TIG perfected this process. EP and EN portions with dual action allow the perfect Aluminum welding.
Related: Pro Tips for Aluminum TIG welding
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is subjected to heavy damage due to heat. It can distort, discolor and expose to corrosion. It’s quite possible to MIG and sticks weld stainless steel, but TIG welding provides incredibly amazing and accurate results.
Copper
Copper is a great conductor of heat, retaining the maximum amount of heat even more than aluminum. So you must input a heavy amount of heat into the joints to keep the puddle mobile. However, copper also oxidizes real quick, so you need to weld as fast as possible. To achieve high welding speed, you can use 100 percent of helium with your TIG welding process.
Related: How to TIG weld copper
Titanium
To get the best joint quality in titanium it is recommended to use the TIG welding process. This would also provide the best aesthetics and precision to your titanium metal. Moreover, welding titanium rarely requires filler metal. The TIG technique uses an arc welding process to obtain a weld fusion without filler material. Excellent shielding gas coverage is achieved by the TIG torch cup, providing protection to titanium’s HAZ from oxidation reactions.
Magnesium
Like aluminum, magnesium also forms an oxide layer, which you must clean before welding. By using the AC TIG, the EP phase of the TIG arc will clean the metal surface, and the EN phase will achieve joint fusion. You can’t weld Magnesium until the sections are thick.
Steel
Besides the stainless steel, which was discussed earlier, other steel alloys can also be welded from the TIG technique. Different machine techniques are required while welding different alloying elements like chromium, cobalt, manganese, molybdenum tungsten, and silicon. Using the common DC TIG technique is highly suitable for welding standard carbon steel. When maximum joint quality and welding aesthetics are needed only then the DC TIG process is employed. Otherwise, MIG and stick welding processes are suitable and preferred for carbon steel.
Related:
Conclusion
For numerous industries, it is a crucial metal joining process. It produces excellent joint quality in metal and makes welding exotic metals quite easy. This technique is mainly used to join aluminum and stainless steel. However, it is also the best option to weld any metal available because of the precision and quality it offers. For welding thin metal sheets, there is no better option available than TIG welding. TIG welding also offers you the best heat management thanks to the various arc and heat control options.
However, this is not an easy job; TIG welding requires a highly experienced welding operator with years of experience. This welding process is to be done slowly as it does not offer high speed.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. TIG welding is best for?
Tig welding is best used for welding pipes and pipelines.
2. Which welding is better, MIG or TIG?
TIG welding is better because of the precision it offers and is better for thinner metals.
3. Is stick Welding better than TIG Welding?
TIG welding is better than stick welding because it is highly controllable and produces stable arcs with clean, precise, and accurate welding.
