Saturday was an interesting day as we had some complex pipe welding to do for a regular client and as we have the capability to work with large pipe to their demanding standards we are their first port of call in our area.
They supplied the electrodes as it was all stick welding and when we got our forklift to empty their van we saw Nikko steel electrodes were to be used; many of us of heard of them but have never used them so the pallet was unloaded and a box each was given to the welders to play with. Normally we supply the electrodes and use Esab or Oerliken or similar depending upon specifications, and sometimes we use Murex.
Our welders used them on transformer, invertor, AC, DC, and in reverse polarity to try them out and really hammered their capabilities to fully understand them before embarking on the pipe welds, so I tried them myself and found them a good structural rod.
Once the welders were fully briefed and read their welding sheets they completed the clients paperwork they began assembling the complex pipe structures, meanwhile I had a chat with the clients fabrication Contract Manager who informed me they use Nikko, mainly in Asia, and their site welders rated them.
After going back into the office I looked them up and found I could buy them retail, locally, for £14-19 a 5Kg box which threw them into the budget class of welding rods; from this alone they are worth a try for those on a budget and certainly worth a recommendation even though they are made in Indonesia.
One of our weld testing companies is on our clients list of approved contractors and they were bought in with their mobile testing facility to test the welds and at the end of today none of the welds failed or had any defects requiring rectification work.
They supplied the electrodes as it was all stick welding and when we got our forklift to empty their van we saw Nikko steel electrodes were to be used; many of us of heard of them but have never used them so the pallet was unloaded and a box each was given to the welders to play with. Normally we supply the electrodes and use Esab or Oerliken or similar depending upon specifications, and sometimes we use Murex.
Our welders used them on transformer, invertor, AC, DC, and in reverse polarity to try them out and really hammered their capabilities to fully understand them before embarking on the pipe welds, so I tried them myself and found them a good structural rod.
Once the welders were fully briefed and read their welding sheets they completed the clients paperwork they began assembling the complex pipe structures, meanwhile I had a chat with the clients fabrication Contract Manager who informed me they use Nikko, mainly in Asia, and their site welders rated them.
After going back into the office I looked them up and found I could buy them retail, locally, for £14-19 a 5Kg box which threw them into the budget class of welding rods; from this alone they are worth a try for those on a budget and certainly worth a recommendation even though they are made in Indonesia.
One of our weld testing companies is on our clients list of approved contractors and they were bought in with their mobile testing facility to test the welds and at the end of today none of the welds failed or had any defects requiring rectification work.