MIG and TIG welding of steel, stainless steel and aluminium

MIG welling is a specific welding technique.  It's name is an abbreviation and stands for Metal Inert Gas.

In this welding process, a wire is fed mechanically on a continuous basis. Between this wire and the workpiece, a plasma arc is formed. On the one hand, the wire serves as an electrode and on the other hand it melts off and becomes a filler material.

During welding, the molten weld pool is protected by a shielded welding gas. During MIG-welding an inert gas is used (e.g. argon or mixtures of argon with hydrogen gas and helium).
An inert gas does not cause a reaction with the molten weld pool.

Welding is possible in three different ways:

  1. Short arc, consisting of repeated short circuit welding
  2. Spray arc, and
  3. Pulse arc welding

TIG welding also is a specific welding technique. The name is an abbreviation and stands for Tungsten Inert Gas. It owes its name to the English term ‘tungsten’ and the use of an inert gas.

TIG welding belongs to the category ‘electric arc welding’. The technique operates with a non-melting electrode made out of tungsten, to which sometimes small amounts of other substances are added to improve the welding arc.
Welding filler material is added separately and manually to the molten weld pool.

During the welding process, a constant current intensity is used (a so-called falling or vertical source power characteristic), in contrast to MIG/MAG welding or O.P. welding where a constant tension is applied (a flat or horizontal source power characteristic). A stable plasma arc is built between the electrode and the piece of metalwork, thanks to which they can never get in contact with each other. Welding is possible with continuous current (in that case the electrode is always negative, otherwise it would melt) or with alternating current.

With TIG-welding a very high-qualitative welding can be obtained. A lot of people consider TIG-welding as a difficult form of welding, because – in contrast to welding with a coated electrode and MIG/MAG welding – the filler material has to be added manually. Therefore, two hands are continuously necessary.

Applications of MIG and TIG welding:

  • Ultra strong, excellent welds and points
  • Up to 25 mm