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excellent question Maineiac,
stick electrode still dominates the industry around the world.
With the advances in chemistry however it is not difficult to have a continuous electrode (wire) that matches or exceeds the properties of a noncontinuous wire (stick) remember that the wires are coming from the same place and then being drawn differently. They both start out as green rod and then are processed to meet their needs. The difference often being the diameter and the surface condition. A stick electrode gets a cellulose coating and a MIG wire gets a copper coating typically unless it is a bare wire. Yes the chemistry's are different in their alloying elements when you get into the higher tensile wires. So I won't say a wire is a wire is a wire, but it can be close. Then we can discuss flux cored wires and the ability to make whatever you want as long as you want 5,000 pounds of it (usually the minimum order for something special)
Yes there are seismic wires for wire feed welding either flux cored, metal cored or solid wires. As pointed out previously sometimes it really comes down to how good the guy is laying the bead.
We also run into code restrictions where wire feed welding is not an accepted practice. To that let me just say that I have sat in on code meetings and when it takes a 2 hour discussion and then a 6 month research project by 6 people to determine if a comma should be used, it does not surprise me at all that it is going to take a very long time to get the code committees to write it in.
Some of my peers here have recently demonstrated advanced process welding to a state DOT board who were skeptical about pulsed welding. Keep in mind these people are some of the best and brightest in civil and mechanical engineering but their exposure to welding and I mean really getting into it and understanding it was a survey class when they were freshmen in college. Their typical experience with welding was with short circuit welding and seeing the quality they could do and then some professor who remembers General Washington says stick is the way to go. I am not at all trying to belittle them or make fun of them but only to illustrate where they are in the advancements of welding. For them their time is spent doing a lot of other design and evaluation processes and when it comes to welding good enough has been good enough for a long time. They are however looking around now to see what can be done as companies push the newer technologies in welding so they can be faster and less expensive. For years and years stick welding has been the process of choice in my opinion as a legacy to someone way back when, when they needed a process better and faster than riveting. At that time stick welding was the process of choice due to ease of use compared to MIG back then and mobility. We all know what it takes to run a stinger out to a project or to try to run a wire feeder out there, pushing a Millermatic 350P across a dirt yard isn't easy. With the application of the suitcase feeder and self shielded wire, now the gloves come off between wire and stick.
Don't get me wrong, I think stick will be around for a long, long time. As well it should be. There are no silver bullets for anything, but a good welder with a good process can over come a lot, mostly because his pride won't let him back down.
stick electrode still dominates the industry around the world.
With the advances in chemistry however it is not difficult to have a continuous electrode (wire) that matches or exceeds the properties of a noncontinuous wire (stick) remember that the wires are coming from the same place and then being drawn differently. They both start out as green rod and then are processed to meet their needs. The difference often being the diameter and the surface condition. A stick electrode gets a cellulose coating and a MIG wire gets a copper coating typically unless it is a bare wire. Yes the chemistry's are different in their alloying elements when you get into the higher tensile wires. So I won't say a wire is a wire is a wire, but it can be close. Then we can discuss flux cored wires and the ability to make whatever you want as long as you want 5,000 pounds of it (usually the minimum order for something special)
Yes there are seismic wires for wire feed welding either flux cored, metal cored or solid wires. As pointed out previously sometimes it really comes down to how good the guy is laying the bead.
We also run into code restrictions where wire feed welding is not an accepted practice. To that let me just say that I have sat in on code meetings and when it takes a 2 hour discussion and then a 6 month research project by 6 people to determine if a comma should be used, it does not surprise me at all that it is going to take a very long time to get the code committees to write it in.
Some of my peers here have recently demonstrated advanced process welding to a state DOT board who were skeptical about pulsed welding. Keep in mind these people are some of the best and brightest in civil and mechanical engineering but their exposure to welding and I mean really getting into it and understanding it was a survey class when they were freshmen in college. Their typical experience with welding was with short circuit welding and seeing the quality they could do and then some professor who remembers General Washington says stick is the way to go. I am not at all trying to belittle them or make fun of them but only to illustrate where they are in the advancements of welding. For them their time is spent doing a lot of other design and evaluation processes and when it comes to welding good enough has been good enough for a long time. They are however looking around now to see what can be done as companies push the newer technologies in welding so they can be faster and less expensive. For years and years stick welding has been the process of choice in my opinion as a legacy to someone way back when, when they needed a process better and faster than riveting. At that time stick welding was the process of choice due to ease of use compared to MIG back then and mobility. We all know what it takes to run a stinger out to a project or to try to run a wire feeder out there, pushing a Millermatic 350P across a dirt yard isn't easy. With the application of the suitcase feeder and self shielded wire, now the gloves come off between wire and stick.
Don't get me wrong, I think stick will be around for a long, long time. As well it should be. There are no silver bullets for anything, but a good welder with a good process can over come a lot, mostly because his pride won't let him back down.
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