Choosing one of the six commonly available tungsten electrodes is a crucial first step in successful gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). In addition, tip preparation is critical. The electrode choices are pure tungsten, 2 percent thoriated, 2 percent ceriated, 1.5 percent lanthanated, zirconiated, and rare earth. The end preparations are balled, pointed, and truncated.

Manufacturing deep-drawn aluminum containers requires various fabrication steps and provides many opportunities to pollute. Anomatic Corp. provides an overview of its fabricating and finishing steps and describes its efforts at environmentally responsible manufacturing.

It is all too easy to ruin a tool or upset a ram if bottom bending is done incorrectly, which is why many manufacturers do not recommend bottom bending when using their equipment or tooling. Understanding V-die selection and the effects of your decisions should be first and foremost in any bending operation, including bottom bending.

Robotic plasma arc cutting can make cutting and weld preparation operations more flexible once you know which equipment, controls, and shielding gas will work best for your application.

George Bright and David Anthony were two welders with the same goal: to upgrade their GTAW system. Learn about their experiences and gain some insight into what you need to know to upgrade from an air-cooled to a water-cooled GTAW system.

Nu-Way Industries Inc., Des Plaines, Ill., learned that remote laser welding demonstrates impressive advantages over traditional resistance and arc welding for its applications.

The FABRICATOR invited the members of its Editorial Advisory Board together to discuss the state of skilled labor in North America and what the future looks like for tomorrow's fabricating and forming employees and employers.

Problems that can arise during metal slitting include poor edge quality, edge burr, edge wave, camber, crossbow, knife marks, and slit width that is out of specification. Some slitting problems can be attributed to poor metal quality; however, it is much more common for the problems to be caused by other variables and factors during the slitting process.

As part of its new exhibit strategy , The Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) is offering scaled-down regional shows, which will be held in even-numbered years. A larger show will return to the Chicago area in odd-numbered years.