22 ARCALOY®
Stainless Steel Metal Core Wires Arcaloy
Metal Cored (MC) wires are small diameter stainless steel metal cored electrodes
designed primarily
for the welding of thin gauge materials. These wires have the typical metal
cored wire welding characteristics,
i.e., higher deposition rate and less penetration than a solid wire. As
a result, these wires are
best used to make small butt, fillet and lap type welds on gauge material at increased
travel speeds compared
to solid wire. The
low spatter and slag-free welds make these electrodes ideal for automatic or robotic
welding applications.
The pushing technique can also be used to further minimize the penetration
and the oxide film
formed on the surface of the weld. Typical applications include catalytic
converters, manifolds, mufflers,
exhaust systems, cladding, etc. The
recommended shielding gas for a spray transfer is an argon rich gas containing
1-2% oxygen or carbon
dioxide. For overall best results to limit surface oxides and optimize the
bead shape, the recommended
shielding gas would be 99% Ar/1% CO2. Proprietary
argon-based shielding gases with small amounts
of hydrogen and CO2 additions also produce
excellent results (e.g. 1% H2 + 2-3% CO2,
remainder
Ar). Pulse welding can also be
used to further minimize the burn-through problems generally associated
with thin gauge materials.
