Manufacturers for GTAW HW? 1

[meltedEng]

Hello,

The production team has purchased a machine from "TIP TIG". It's a semi-auto GTAW, with hot wire, and that process I am highly interested in since we already have automatics. It also has linear actuation for the wire to "agitate the weld pool", but I've turned it off, it's garbage. Our automatic GTAW systems use wire oscillation for weld puddle stirring and that actually works great when needed. This actuation just destroyed the wire feed and causes bird nesting.

Anyway, the machines from TIP TIG are horrible it appears. Hot wire liners constantly breaking, the torch is loosening itself and spraying coolant out. It's horrible to line-up, and is easily bumped and misaligned. I've taken it off the floor after we had to scrap a few parts after getting hit with coolant while hot. The machines take hours of fiddling out of welding time and the welders are tired of them.


Does anyone know or recommend if there is any manufacturer making a hand held system?

 

Mechanical oscillation of filler wire, whether TipTig or Fronius, is to be avoided. Wear and tear and all that. Let the electronics provide any tricks that you need (like the Lincoln STT and Miller RMD GMAW processes).

Also, mechanical reliability, especially in the little bits like tips and liners, is absolutely essential. The wire feeder can often make or break a system.

I have used a very simple cold wire system that was basically a liner and bracket attached to a standard manual torch. It worked very well for fillet welds for trays on stainless steel towers where GMAW was not permitted - it cut distortion by half. Training requirements are minimal for welders already trained on manual GTAW.

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."