Wire speed

[QCPEEWEE]

Hello

I was wondering if anyone knew a formula or a better way to find out how many ipm on my wire speed to calculate my amps. Before actually running it on my test.

 

[gtaw]

Amperage, while related to wire feed speed is not a direct relationship.

The electrode extension, contact tip to work distance, electrical stickout (call it what you want) also influences the amperage and the melt-off rate. Ohm's Law tells us that if the voltage is held constant, amperage is inversely proportional to resistance. That is, as the resistance increases, amperage decreases. The contact tip to work distance represents resistance, so as the CTTW distance increases, resistance increases, and amperage decreases.

You would have to graph the relationship between wire feed speed and amperage for discrete CTTW distances and keep voltage constant. You would construct a series of traces on the graph; each representing the amperage for the given wire feed speed. The CTTW distance is fixed, i.e., it is a constant. The voltage is constant (or nearly so) because you are using a constant potential power supply. And lastly, the wire feed speed is constant. The only variable is the change in CTTW distance. You would run a bead and record the three constants and the resulting amperage.

You could plot the relationship between the three variables and amperage using different arc voltages. As you increase the voltage, as new set of traces would be plotted on the graph.


There is no magic formula that I am aware of.


Best regards - Al