Welding consumables

Welding Consumables

EWA member are producing welding consumables for the main welding and brazing processes: MMA (manual metal arc ) – TIG (tungsten inert gas) – MIG/MAG (metal inert/active gas) – SAW (submerged arc) welding – Brazing with flame , induction , in oven or other heating process

Consumables are available as:

  • Covered electrodes (for the MMA welding process) : Welding electrodes contain a metal core wire on which the coating (minerals and metal powder) is extruded and baked. The rod is used to carries the current to build the welding arc and to provide the metal deposit required for the joint to be welded. The coating protects the fluid metal by a slag, stabilizes the arc, and improves the weld (additional alloying). The diameter of the core wire determines the size of the electrode.
  • Wires (for the TIG ,MIG/MAG and SAW welding process ): Solid welding wire for TIG and MIG/MAG processes are always used with a gas protection / the composition of the gas could be an active mixture gas or an inert gas. Wires (single or multi-wire systems) for the SAW process produce the arc under a flux protection.
  • Tubular (flux or metal) cored wires (for a MIG/MAG welding process): Flux cored wires can be used with gas or without gas protection; metal cored wires require a gas protection. Some metal cored wires can also be used in the SAW process .
  • Fluxes (for the SAW welding process) : in the submerged arc process the molten weld and the arc zone are protected from atmospheric contamination by being “submerged” under a blanket of granular fusible flux consisting of lime, silica, manganese oxide, calcium fluoride, and other constituents. This thick layer of flux completely covers the molten metal thus preventing spatter and sparks as well as suppressing the intense ultraviolet radiation and emission of fumes.
  • Consumables for Brazing process : Brazing is a metal-joining process whereby a filler metal is heated above melting point and distributed between two or more close-fitting parts by capillary action. The filler metal is brought slightly above its melting (liquidus) temperature while protected by a suitable atmosphere, usually a flux. It then flows over the base metal (known as wetting) and is then cooled to join the workpieces together. It is similar to soldering, except the temperatures used to melt the filler metal are higher for brazing .Main brazing consumables are aluminum-silicon, copper- and nickel alloys as well gold/silver alloys.

Each of the welding consumables – non-alloyed and alloyed steel grades and non-ferrous alloys– have been designed with specific characteristics, symbolized by product classifications according international (ISO, EN) standards.