Welding Machine Guide

What Is a Welding Machine?

A welding machine, or a welder, is a device that fuses two or more pieces of metal together by applying pressure and heat on the workpieces. Depending on the welding method being used, the way welding machine generates pressure and heat would be different accordingly. 

When it comes to the machine tool mechanism, the components that are usually made of metals should be combined, which thus facilitates the smooth operation. How these components are combined? The two common ways must be bolting and welding. The former is to tighten the contacting surfaces of the targeted workpieces, which is relatively easy to assemble and disassemble for maintenance. While the latter ensures the durability of the entire mechanism, since the welded part cannot be easily separated apart.

Welding machines are usually applied for welding metal workpieces that are made as various shapes or forms. For example, combining the different parts of an exhaust pipe, or welding two pieces of sheet metal for other usages, etc. In addition to the requirement of works, these targeted metal workpieces are welded by the corresponding welding machine, including spot welders, seam welder, flash welders, friction welders, grating welders, and so on.

How Does a Welding Machine Work?

A welding machine is more like a set of equipment required for the welding procedure, including the filler metals and auxiliary element such as gas. The filler metals can be made of different forms like metal wire or rods. During the operation, the filler metals as well as the welded parts would be molten and then fuse the targeted workpieces together until the welded area is solidified. This is to apply heat to the workpieces in order to get the expected result. 

In addition to the heat generated as the filler metals are applied directly to the targeted welding area, pressure is another factor that assists for the welding procedure. For one of the welding method, which is called spot welding, the electrodes clamp on the workpieces from the two sides. The heat and the pressure produced by the clamping force would then make the welding procedure smoother and faster.

What Are the Different Types of Welding Methods?

● TIG welding

TIG welding also refers to tungsten inert gas welding, which uses gas shielded tungsten electrode as the torch for the welding procedure. Due to the material used for electrodes, this welding method has more limits on the workpiece materials. However, with the experienced operator, TIG welding is the method that is able to contribute to the optimal result of welding.

● MIG welding

MIG welding is similar to the former one that has the electrode shielded by inert gas, but the electrode here is made of thin metal wire. While the metal wire also works without gas, and this technique is called gasless or flux core welding. Both gas and gasless welding technique are available for MIG welding, while some may choose one over the other depending on the cost the process takes and how smooth the welding area is.

● Arc welding

Arc welding is the most traditional and cost-efficient among all the welding method. The equipments required for arc welding is relatively less complex than others, and this makes the operator’s skills influence more on the results. In other words, with the skilled operator, the costs spent on excessive welding equipment can be saved in the practical term.

Classification of Welding Machines

There are various factors that classify each type of welding machines, such as the required sizes and shapes of workpieces, or the filler metal material use, etc. The different types of welding machines include the spot welders, seam welder, flash welders, friction welders, grating welders, inverter welders, laser welders, plasma welders, and so on. Moreover, there are also automatic welding machines that are able to operate without the manipulation of the operator. While welding machine is not one-size-fits-all, which means one machine suitable for one task may not work for another. Therefore, before choosing the right welding machine, you should take the comprehensive consideration, and then make good use of the one that best suited for your works.

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