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Fabricating tight ships on a tight deadline
For Great Lakes Shipyard, a division of the Great Lakes Towing Co., located on the Cuyahoga River’s Old River Channel just off of Lake
Erie, one order posed the ship designer and fabricator’s biggest
challenge in recent history: designing and...
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Aluminum welding Q&A: About soot, porosity, and equipment
What causes soot and porosity in aluminum welding? Do I need a push/pull gun with my GMAW machine to weld aluminum? Are robots practical for my aluminum application? These questions are answered in this first installment of a new column on...
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Weldable and unweldable aluminum alloys
Frank Armao discusses which aluminum alloys are weldable, which are not, and why.
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Achieving T6 designation for 6061
Can you tell me the heat treatment steps necessary to produce 6061-T6? I have heard that heat treating it after welding will increase its mechanical properties.
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Tackling aluminum GMAW
The reactive nature of aluminum to the welding arc, which is much more pronounced than that of other base materials, presents many challenges, including excess heat input and burn-through, porosity,
poor bead appearance, poor fusion, and cracking....
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Welding aluminum
The first step in learning about welding aluminum is learning about the various alloys themselves (cast and wrought)—the digits used in the aluminum designation system, the properties of the various alloys, and the considerations in matching...
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Riding the right wave in aluminum welding
Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), or tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, often is thought of as the most difficult welding process to master. Fortunately for welders, several technological advances have occurred, forcing many to rethink their...
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The pressure's on!
Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is dedicated to researching the impact that oceans have on the Earth as a whole, and sometimes that means diving to treacherous depths to gather pertinent information. For an...
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Age before welding in T6
Frank Armao discusses why weld strength increases when incorporating an aging cycle prior to welding in the T6 temper.
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Preventing porosity in humid environments
I'm having problems with excessive porosity when TIG welding aluminum. My friend says it comes from water vapor in the air (it's very humid here) being broken down by the arc. Is this true? It sounds pretty far-fetched. I hope you didn't bet on...
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Eliminating fine shavings from 5356 wire
I've been using my welding equipment to weld aluminum with 4043 filler for a long time without problems. Now that I have a project that requires me to use 5356 filler, I'm having problems with fine shavings that come off of this particular wire....
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These aren't your grandparents' wheelchairs
Vesco Metal Craft, a manufacturer of rugby wheelchairs, makes specialized wheelchairs from 6061 seamless aluminum tubing. This violent, collision-oriented sport causes cracks in the welds' heat-affected zone, so the company sought better...
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Minimizing weld cleaning stripes
Frank Armao gives advice on how to minimize the appearance of cleaning stripes on polished aluminum tread plate.
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To weld or not to weld Alclad
I have some aluminum sheet that I would like to use to fabricate a project. The only marking on it is "Alclad." Other than that, I have no idea what alloy it is. Can you tell me what filler metal to use to weld it? Whether you realize it or not,...
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Aluminum Workshop
I have a fabrication project involving 5454 aluminum plate, and I was told to weld this alloy using 5183 filler wire. Is this correct?
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Which filler wire is best for welding 6061-T6 aluminum, 5356 or 4043?
Both are acceptable for welding 6061-T6, but each has advantages and disadvantages depending on the application. An aluminum alloy containing 5 percent magnesium, 5356 generally is stronger and more ductile than 4043. But 4043, which contains 5...
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Little Giant takes flight
Wing Enterprises started out with a product and a patent -- for its Little Giant brand ladders. However, in time its sales lagged, and the company needed to figure out a new marketing strategy. With an infomercial and automated welding, Wing...
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Innovation rides the waves
As aluminum becomes more and more readily available for various manufacturing applications, the boat-building industry is taking notice. To build its patented vessel design, Aluminum Chambered Boats has found that arc welding - both GMAW and GTAW...
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Welding aluminum piping
Steel and aluminum have distinctly different properties, and this is important if you're manufacturing aluminum piping systems. Learn the differences in welding steel and aluminum pipe and how they apply to the best practices you can use to weld...
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Choosing a GMAW machine for occasional aluminum welding
I want to buy a small gas metal arc welding (GMAW) machine, preferably one that runs from 120-V input power. Most of my welding will be steel, but I would like to weld aluminum occasionally. Can these machines really weld aluminum? I've heard a...
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Inverter versus transformer power supplies for aluminum GTAW
I'm looking for a new GTAW power supply for AC aluminum welding. I had intended to buy a conventional transformer unit, but several people have told me to buy an inverter-based power supply. Which one is better for my application?...
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Welding aluminum with inverter-based power supplies
It's easy to look at such a long-established technology as welding and believe that little or no technology development is taking place. In truth, however, the capabilities of welding power supplies are changing constantly and rapidly, especially...
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Al GMAW: CC or CV?
For about 40 years, a great debate in welding is whether to use constant-current or constant-voltage power supplies when using gas metal arc welding on aluminum. Constant-current power supplies made sense 30 years ago and are still used in some...
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How to recognize, minimize weld smut
When I weld any aluminum alloy, I see a covering, light gray to black in color, over the weld. I see it when I gas tungsten arc weld (GTAW), but it's worse when I gas metal arc weld (GMAW). What is it? Does it affect the mechanical properties of...
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Choosing tungsten electrode type, size for aluminum GTAW
I've heard different opinions about which size and type of tungsten electrode I should use to gas tungsten arc weld (GTAW) aluminum. Could you clear up this subject for me? As you know, we use direct current electrode negative (DCEN), or...
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Aluminum stands tall as a structural metal—Part 2
Editor's Note: This is the second installment of a two-part article. Part I covers the properties, characteristics, and applications of aluminum as a structural metal. Part II explores the use of structural aluminum in the design of the U.S....
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Aluminum stands tall as a structural metal—Part 1
Editor's Note: This is the first installment of a two-part article. Part 1 covers the properties, characteristics, and applications of aluminum as a structural metal. Part II explores the use of structural aluminum in the design of the U.S....
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Preparing for aluminum GTAW
There are right ways and wrong ways to set up welding equipment to accommodate the aluminum GTAW process. Welders should know how to troubleshoot this commonly used process and be familiar with how to solve some common welding problems.
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