Another Argoshield Q

[Jak]

Hi all,
Haven't posted much so go easy on me (I have made a good effort at searching for similar posts though so hopefully I won't be repeating to much).
The weld set up at my structural steel company has always used Argoshield Light and I'm wondering after experiencing some difficulties in transfer changes if this (amongst other factors of course) is the ideal gas for this type of work or should i be looking at something heavier. I can get my settings dialled in nicely for the thicker gauge material we work on (spray transfer) but when I move to some of the smaller stuff (5-8mm) and i bring my settings down a bit my welds get awfully noisy and spatter starts to become an issue. Would i be right in thinking that a greater Co2 % helps in keeping spray transfer tidier due to better shielding? In which case would a Universal Argoshield be better? I appreciate that gas mix isn't the only factor at play here so i will take all advise and answer questions where i can. I use 1.2mm wire on a robust Murex Challenger 400.
Hope this makes sense and thanks

 

[Hitch]

You ought to be using Argoshield heavy, even 5_8mm is perfectly fine on it


I notice you say structural steel...I assume light is on the wps as the relevant gas?

 

[henry Kadzielski]

My two cents worth. When I did my mig ticket at the tafe college, all the college used was light (tri mix 52) we were welding samples 10mm this in all positions and the exam was also done with that gas. So if it was OK to use that gas at the college and have also asked the welding inspector about it's use on thicker material he told me it's ok. So if it's OK then it's OK. I have welded 10mm plate to 20mm hollow bar one 12mm (leg length) synergic machine at about 345amps, fillet in one pass on 1.2mm wire with that gas and good penetration and fusion and no spatter, beautifull flat miter weld bead, even if I say so myself.
I personally think some trimming of the voltage will be required to reduce the spatter when you reduce from thicker to thinner, so am not supprised to hear you can have spatter problems.
I use the same gas (52) for all the welding that I do (thinner material 2.3mm up to 8mm ) with .8mm wire and the bigger thicker stuff with 1.2mm wire. Different machines for the .8mm Fronius tps270 and the 1.2mm Esetti query350, saves me changing wire in the machines. There will be times that a different gas will be required as may be specified in the WPS. Then you have to use what they specify, otherwise I have no trouble with Argoshield light (52)

Just a note, the higher concentration of Co2 increases penetration but increases spatter.

 

[Munkul]

Hi all,
Haven't posted much so go easy on me (I have made a good effort at searching for similar posts though so hopefully I won't be repeating to much).
The weld set up at my structural steel company has always used Argoshield Light and I'm wondering after experiencing some difficulties in transfer changes if this (amongst other factors of course) is the ideal gas for this type of work or should i be looking at something heavier. I can get my settings dialled in nicely for the thicker gauge material we work on (spray transfer) but when I move to some of the smaller stuff (5-8mm) and i bring my settings down a bit my welds get awfully noisy and spatter starts to become an issue. Would i be right in thinking that a greater Co2 % helps in keeping spray transfer tidier due to better shielding? In which case would a Universal Argoshield be better? I appreciate that gas mix isn't the only factor at play here so i will take all advise and answer questions where i can. I use 1.2mm wire on a robust Murex Challenger 400.
Hope this makes sense and thanks

More CO2 raises the resistance of the arc, meaning you can push more voltage (therefore power) into the joint to get more penetration, WITHOUT a longer arc length (which wastes power)

It sounds like you have spray settings down on thicker stuff, but your settings on thinner stuff isn't set correctly. If everything works properly, you should be able to run short-arc with barely any spatter at all using argoshield light.
Usually you get spatter when your voltage is set too high for the wirespeed. A heavier gas might help or might make things worse.
What amperage ranges are we talking here?
you "should" be using a heavier gas on structural work... but plenty of steelwork has successfully been welded with argoshield light... as always, the proof is in the pudding, otherwise known as a weld test

 

[backpurge]

On material in that thickness range you should ideally be using a gas with a higher CO2 content, this will give you a better fusion profile and can easily be seen on a macro section. A change to Argoshield Universal would give you a gas that would be suitable for the thickness range you have mentioned. Having said all that, I think your main issue lies in not having the machine tuned in correctly, you may struggle a bit using 1.2mm wire on 5mm thick material

 

[Jak]

Thanks very much for all your responses. I usually order about 5 bottles at a time from BOC so maybe I'll try swapping out a light bottle for a universal/heavy and run some of my own tests and see how it fares up. Yes light is what my procedures and approvals were run in on, and I appreciate that the WPS is gospel but this was more to see if i could obtain better results (and update procedures if necessary) on a different and more suitable gas mix for the range of material i work on. Maybe a thinner wire might prove effective on some of the smaller material as well. As i assumed the gas is not the only factor at play here and user error was top of my list as well
I will try some settings adjustments on scrap tomorrow as well as ordering a heavier gas mix and that way i can add any WPS that may be beneficial.
Will report back with findings
Thanks

 

[Munkul]

if it helps, we use 1.0mm wire predominantly under 300 amps. It has a huge wide operating window where it runs really smoothly from 80ish amps up to 300ish.