Amperage

[Welder Jay]

im attending a tech school right now and we just got done with MIG but im trying to explain what exactly amperage does and people seem to get confused.any ideas on how to tell people how and why its needed in simplest terms that non welders would understand?

 

[monsterer]

If you need to weld thicker metal, you need higher amperage.

 

[shenion]

Really there is voltage and wire feed settings on the MIG. The amperage is a product of the voltage, wire speed and wire diameter.

You set the voltage (power setting) for the amount of heat you want then adjust the wire speed accordingly. Using a smaller or larger wire size will decrease or increase the amount of heat respectively.

 

[matt1978]

On Mig, Wire speed is current (amps).......

So if someone asks to increase the amps, you can't do this without increasing the wirespeed.

 

[piman]

Hello Jay,

current is power, all else being equal, the greater the current flow (electrons) the more heat is generated. It is like varying the nozzle size (hence fuel flow) in a gas torch.

Alec