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Using mineral mixes made of sealed, high temperature resistant ceramic backing has changed how many welders are welding their seams.
Maybe you are not sure how ceramic welding tape works when fused, or you need some help understanding how to use it properly.If so, read on for tips on how to use ceramic backing on your next project.
Ceramic Slag Seals the Weld
When ceramic backing melts, it produces a glassy substance called slag that forms after separating from the raw ore. It is a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. The slag forms an airproof seam on the bottom of the weld, and that keeps any air from being able to enter.
Ceramic Backing Comes in Blocks
Ceramic backing comes as blocks 2cm long and 10 to 15 cm long. It is on foil with a flexible adhesive edge that makes it easy to stick to the underside of the weld seam or along the placement in the metallic rails. Then the rails can be attached with magnets or other fixtures.
When to Use Ceramic Backing
Ceramic backing is economical when doing submerged arc welding or MAG welding with solid wires or metal-cored wires when doing positional or downward welding. especially when using rutile cored wires with a fast freezing slag.
Traditionally, ceramic backings help keep costs low when used in industry segments like shipbuilding, machine construction, general steel construction, tanks, pressure vessel fabrication, building bridges, and plant engineering.
Ceramic Backing is More Moisture Resistant
Ceramic backing is moisture resistant which makes them suitable for outdoor welding. This moisture resistance helps increases the weather conditions for welding.
Dense ceramic backing with a low moisture content works incredibly well on higher strength steels, especially if they are fine-grain. The backing is perfect for situations when you need to weld with low-hydrogen content.
Remove the Backing
When you are finished welding, you should remove the backing often a foil-like paper from eh weld to help keep it from rusting. The foil backing on the ceramic backing sometimes makes a crevice that can start a stress point that promotes it to begin deteriorating.
Waterproof
If you need a waterproof welding element, you will want to choose ceramic backing since it is waterproof. It makes it structurally resistant to water drops from mechanical and natural causes.
Non-Corrosive
Ceramic backing does not produce a violent reaction to the steel during the welding process. It is rich in anti-acid, anti-corrosion, and anti-chemical properties. These properties are what keep the metal from changing during the welding process.
Techniques of Welding to Use with Ceramic Backing
Ceramic backing is excellent when using the following welding techniques such as a submerged arc, next it is excellent to use for automatic welding, and when doing CO2 Semi-automatic welding. Submerged is a standard process that uses the continuous solid and tubular electrode with metalcore. It immerses the molten weld and arch, which protects them from the atmosphere.
Automatic welding uses the welding equipment automatically and continuously uses a particular welding machine for factory automation.
Co2 semi-automatic welding combines the use of CO2 and arc welding. The gas is transferred from the welding torch nozzle to the weld pool shield to complete the process.
Prevent Burn Through
Using a ceramic backing on some joints can increase penetration and prevent burning through to the other side. Move the electrode in and out of the Molton welding pool to weld with a good root surface as your progress along the joint.
Minimum Gap
Avoid closing the gap by keeping a minimum of 3 mm, and be sure to do the vertical joints in steps moving upwards in welding contractions when welding a horizontal groove weld.
Fasten Cylinders Securely
Fasten cylinders securely to something before using to prevent damage and chance for injuries. Always connect the oxygen regulator and hose to the cylinder and connect the acetylene cylinder and hose to the cylinder of acetylene.
Width of Weld Bead
Complete the minimum circumference bead before stopping the welding sequence. The maximum bead width should always be limited to 10 mm or about 3/8 inch.
Root Opening
You can use open root to join complete penetration joints between welded members. You can also you the open root to weld from the front side.
Mig Welding
Ceramic backing is also used in certain types of heavy MIG welding for things like pipeline seam welding or pressure vessel manufacturing. You will find several good reasons to use ceramic weld backing for MIG welding, including:
- Improved adhesion from the more comprehensive heat receptive pressure-sensitive foil.
- Xray quality back beads on the root pass from the ceramic backing.
- Ceramic backing helps eliminate the risk of having to do rework and having costly rejected projects.
- The root of the weld is fully enclosed, resulting in reduced oxidation. This process eliminates the need for cleaning the weld after.
- Ceramic backing lets you use welding currents by holding the weld pool
- Ceramic backing eliminates the need to gouge and grind since welding can be done from a single side and still penetrate all the way through.
- Ceramic backing allows for increased welding speeds.
MIG Welding Positioning
To have the best stability when MIG welding, it will give your MIG gun more stability and give you a more consistent weld if you use both hands.
Wire For Your MIG Welder
Cheap wire can save you a few dollars, but using a good wire with your MIG welder will produce high standards that give you a more consistent arc and results in a higher quality bead.
Wire Tension and Your MIG Welder
Always check the wire tension and your rollers when you are going to use your MIG welder. If the wire gets slack, it can cause your welder to malfunction. Sometimes if the wire gets too loose, it will jam and cause the excess to spatter. A well-maintained machine will do a better job and is much safer to use.
Gas Flow
It is essential to always check your gas flow before starting to weld with your MIG welder. A standard-setting that many welders use is 20-25 cph. Make sure you have gas in the tank if you are not getting the flow you want. If you suspect a leak in the line, you can use some soapy water and run it along the gas line to check for bubbles, just like you would a tire if you were trying to find a hole in it.
Avoiding Soot Buildup When Using Your MIG and Spool Gun
certain metals can build up excess soot in your machine. If your temperature and the wire and base metal melt, some soot is caused by the push/pull actions. To minimize this, try pushing the gun along the material.
MIG Gun Travel Angle
When using your MIG gun in a perpendicular position, you will find the best way to minimize spatter is to keep the angle between 5 and 15 degrees. Anything higher and will increase the spatter that you have to clean up.
What Causes A Weak Circuit
One of the first things to check if you have a weak circuit is whether you have a bad ground clamp. Often just replacing that one thing with a heavy-duty one will give you the closed electrical circuit you need to weld correctly.
Erratic Arc
An erratic arc is often caused by a tip that needs to be replaced. As the tip widens from use, it causes your arc to start to jump all over the place.
Welding Thick to Thinner Material
Use your arc and run it down the thicker material first to warm it up. Then turn up your amperage down and weld the thinner material to the thicker.
Tight Angles
When tight welding angles change the cup size to a smaller one, about two sizes is about right. Then use a micro-torch. It makes excellent tight angles.
Your Arc
Don’t hold the arc too long. The more you weld, you will learn to push inward and travel along the workpiece instead of holding the arc too long in one place. Practice helps.
Striking Your Arc
All welders want to have a clean, professional-looking finish when completing their work. The best way to accomplish this is to strike your arc behind where you want to start with the weld. This process helps you go over your strike marks and allows you to have a clean bead. The arc strikes are where the metal is stressed most.
Downward Motion
Hand motion can make all the difference when welding in how the finished product looks. When using your MIG, once you get the right travel speed and distance figured out, you will be found. With a stick, you have to get the travel speed down and the motion of moving the stick closer to the piece as you travel along with it.
Wandering Arc
A wandering arc might be a sign if you have a MIG welder that you need a new tip, but it may be more complicated if you are using a stick. Try doing these steps to fix this:
- Try to switch the polarity to AC. Sometimes if you are using DC, the magnetic field throws off the arc.
- Switch out the ground to see if it improves.
- Try a lower amperage. Maybe your welder is hot.
- Try a smaller electrode.
Joint Consistency
Make sure your joints are clamped and consistent. Flux produces a lot of smoke. You will also want to check to ensure you have a good bevel.
Ceramic backing and Seam Welding
Seam welding is one of the ways ceramic backing is commonly used. Seam welding is exactly what it sounds like: welding two edges together as a seam. This can be accomplished in two main ways: with friction, and with electric resistance.
Friction Seam Welding
Friction Seam welding is where the heat from the disc-shaped electrode wheels makes a weld that is continuous by the workpieces being fed between them, resulting in a rolling resistance weld. You can use an intermittent motion or a continuous one.
Resistance Seam Welding
Resistance seam welding is similar to spot welding by resistance. When welding seams, though, the electrodes are driven by a motor and are not stationary. This type of welding is perfect for sheet metal fabrication. The sheets become fused when the electrical current passes through the sheets.
A significant advantage of resistance seam welding is that the welds are clean, and no gas formation or welding fume occurs. This process is also fully automated and offers a single or double seam weld.
A disadvantage to resistance seam welding is that the weld is only able to do straight lines. It cannot do thicknesses of more than 3 mm. The machinery is expensive to purchase too.
This type of welding is very suitable for making gas tanks for trucks and cars. It can also make tin for cans, radiators, and steel drums. This type of welding is used to join aircraft tanks, refrigerators, and other things together too. It works very well on stainless steel, nickel alloys, and magnesium.
If Heat Gets Too High During the Resistance Seam Process
You can cool down the electrodes by washing the weld area with water to keep the rollers cool during the join process using an electric current if you notice the heat is too hot.
Lasers and Ceramic Backing
A recent finding of high-temperature resistance ceramics adds many new applications to their use, including when working on airplanes and refractories. Instead of using the high-temperature diffusion bonding to join ceramics together, it was recently discovered that melting and resolidifying are unnecessary.
The University of Cambridge figured out that using a flat interface at an elevated temperature but much lower than currently being used using an applied pressure can yield the same results.
To Conclude
There are several uses and techniques to use ceramic backing when welding. An experienced welder can use ceramic backing to give him more opportunities to work when the weather is not optimal. He can use it to do a variety of projects, from tanks to ships. Using these tips can help you do better work and have cleaner-looking work.
What is ceramic backing in welding? | Mv-organizing.org
Backing in welding | AMARINE (amarineblog.com)
7 Ways You Could Benefit from Ceramic Weld Backing | Westermans Blog (westermans.com)
Ceramic Welding for Glass Furnaces | Fosbel Ceramic Technologies (fosbel.com)
