alu pulsed AC?

[toddy]

i am now playing with alu at work and the system we have means i can inpose a pulse onto the ac wave form.

thia is a fullt automatided tig welding set, so just program and press start and stand back..

so i was wondering if there is any use for pulse on ac?
as it makes the alu weld go from smoth to a nice ripple.

thanks for any help

 

[hotrodder]

I'm not a fan of pulse on ally personally but that might because my kit is limited to a low frequency pulse in AC. Pulse into the hundreds or even thousands of Hz i can see being useful but i've never had the chance to have a proper play with kit capable of that in AC

From a fatigue POV a smooth weld is better than one with pretty ripples/'stacks of dimes'. A high frequency pulse stiffens and constricts the arc and improves the welds depth to width ratio. The weld will be smoother too, appearance wise the surface texture would be similar to a weld made without pulse