Top 5 in 365—Articles about cutting and weld prep

At left is a metal surface with corrosion removed using VpCI®-422; at right, a metal surface before the corrosion was removed. Photos courtesy of Cortec Corp., St. Paul, Minn.

The last installment of “Top 5 in 365” showcased the five most-popular articles on thefabricator.com published within the last year about consumables. Previous installments have focused on bending and folding, laser cutting, arc welding, assembly and joining, and automation and robotics. This post is about the cutting and weld prep category on the website. This is the place to find information on equipment for beveling, deburring, grinding, and sanding. Here are the top five most-read articles in this category in the last year.

5. Selecting a tube laser cutting system for optimizing production
Careful planning, feature selection maximize return on investment
Laser tube cutting machines do more than cut a dazzling variety of features and combine processes. They also eliminate material handlings and storage of semifinished parts, making a shop run more efficiently. However, this isn’t the end of it. Maximizing return on investment means carefully analyzing the shop’s operations, reviewing all the available machine features and options, and specifying a machine accordingly.

4. Manual plasma cutting and gouging in 2018
New consumable technology makes manual plasma cutting and gouging faster, safer, and more precise
Today’s air plasma systems have a lot going for them. They are smaller and more portable than ever, consumables last much longer, and they feature all kinds of smart technology to make operation easier and cuts more consistent. Still, you face several challenges when it comes to cutting metal and gouging welds manually. These challenges include cutting metal in a hidden or hard-to-reach area or precisely removing a weld without damaging the surrounding metal. Another challenge is removing temporary attachments, which is difficult to do without a significant amount of grinding.

Fortunately, new advances are helping to overcome these challenges, increasing productivity and decreasing operating cost. Further, these advances are leading to fewer worker injuries and an overall safer work environment.

3. Tips for preparing your material before welding
Simple ways to avoid expensive rework
The welding process is a very important step in a variety of manufacturing and fabrication processes. All different types of metals are welded for many different types of fabrication. However, for any welding process to be accurate and effective the first time around, it is universally true that the parent material must be properly prepared.

Material preparation is so critical that it is often documented to ensure consistency in the procedure, regardless of the material. Removing coatings such as paint, oils, greases, and rust (oxides) ensures that the area to be welded is in the best possible condition. Read on for keys to successful material preparation of both ferrous and nonferrous metals.

2. 6 tips for troubleshooting your waterjet
Maintaining, repairing a typical intensifier-based waterjet is simple
As with any mechanical machinery, problems are sure to surface from time to time in a waterjet system. Six of the most common problems in an intensifier-based waterjet system are overstroking, water leaks, short seal life, hydraulic pressure failure, low water pressure, and hydraulic fluid temperature overheating. Most of them can be quickly resolved with some simple troubleshooting.

1. Preparing structural steel surfaces for painting, coating standards
Adhesion is the reason for the season
Mill scale. Dirt. Laser scale. Rust. Heat-treat scale. Grease. Dust. And did we mention heavy mill scale? When these come between your structural steel and your paint or coating, bad things happen. And when the steel you fabricate holds up bridges, overpasses, buildings, and stadiums, bad things are big bad things.

So what are structural steel fabricators doing about surface preparation, and what options are available? Surface preparation can run from simple chemical cleaning to abrasion methods such as grinding and abrasive blasting. How to know which methods to use?

Next up? Finishing.