Did you know that welding has existed for hundreds of years? The same goes for welding machines. Since the Bronze Age and Iron Age, welding has become a part of our existence that it is said more than half of the products created by man today requires welding.
This means that planes, trains, automobiles, bridges, and even computers went through a welding process when being built. Isn’t that amazing?
However, medium AM welding didn’t come to being until 1881, in the 19th century. Over years have gone by and welding has developed to be a fun and exciting profession that not only allows welders to make a living, but make six figure incomes.
What is a Welding Machine?
Welding is a manufacturing method for joining materials, usually metals and thermoplastics, by using extreme heat to melt the parts and allowing them to cool, resulting in fusion.
Welding is different from low-temperature methods like brazing and soldering which do not melt the base metal.
Most of the time, filler metal is added to the joint which forms a pool of molten metal that cools to form a joint that may or may not be stronger than the base metal parts, depending on the configuration of the weld.
There are various sources used to provide welding, including a gas flame, electric arc, laser, electron beam, friction, and ultrasound. So welding also requires a number of welding tools to perform the welding task.
Some welding tools are: pliers, hammers, tongs, electrodes, welding goggles, and welding machines. There are several types of welding machines and types of welding processes used in the welding industry.
Additionally there are some portable hand held welding machines and some that are computer controlled. As of now there is not one single welding machine made for every type of welding process.
This will give you a basic understanding and idea about welding machines and their functions. Let’s get to it.
Types of Welding Machines
The types of machines mainly found in welding industries:
- MIG welding machine
- TIG welding machine
- Spot welding machine
- Thyristor MIG welding machine
- Shielded metal arc welding machine
- Flux core arc welding machine
- Energy beam welding machine
- Atomic hydrogen welding machine
- Submerged arc welding machine
- Oxy acetylene welding machine
- Transformer welding machine
- Rectifier welding machine
- Converter welding machine
- Plastic welding machine
- Multi-purpose welding machine
#1. MIG Welding Machine.
MIG welding machines are great to use in many situations from homes, to workshops and for large scale industry uses.
MIG (Gas Metal Arc Welding machines) can weld aluminum, nickel alloys, mild steels, magnesium steels, and stainless steels; thus indicating to a wide purpose use of MIG welding machines.
MIG welding is mostly used the automotive industry, for welding repair work on cars and motorbikes or sport utility vehicles (SUV’s) and vans, though the machines do have uses in construction industries where steel is used in construction, such as in residential construction and offices buildings, bridges and other structures or items.
Welding machines currently do have many uses in High Production Manufacturing for parts produced for automobiles, computer parts, ship parts and many other types of items.
Although there are a few types of MIG welding machines and has many variations at that. Here are few worth mentioning:
- Gas-less MIG welding machines: Gas-less welders are usually found on job sides as well as in homes especially by people who are working outside or in windy conditions have the beauty of not having to get worried about if the wind blows the shielding gas away while you are welding.
- Wire welding machines: or flux core welders, the Wire Machines, a the welder uses stitch welds almost all the time, on thin or thick plate.
#2. TIG Welding Machine.
The Tiger Inert Gas (TIG) welding machine is ideal for welding metals such as gold, copper, brass, aluminum, nickel alloys, magnesium, titanium, and stainless steel.
It is excellent for making things in a facility or at home, making repairs, but is probably not the best for some outdoor job or a job site.
In other words, while you are welding in the TIG Machine, the heat produced will depend on arc voltage, arc polarity, and amperage. Polarity is the direction of the flow of current, for any DC welding.
Welding machines can have a multitude of other variables, such as a foot-operated variable amperage which is very useful. For aluminum welding, there is also a balance of cleaning and penetration for aluminum.
In addition to power/tig control, there is also possible electric foot pedal, electric torch, and fillers metal rod.
A Tiger Inert Gas (TIG) Welding machine can be used in power plants, maintenance machinery design and fabrication, use in construction particular in the petrochemical industry, ship/boat construction workshops and even indoor decorative metalworks as well as decorative outdoor structures and so on.
Nonetheless, there are many types of TIG Welding Machines for welding metals such as;
- DC. TIG Welding Machine: A D.C. welding machine can weld all metals and is suitable for all types of work.
- AC. TIG Welding Machine: The smallest, lightest and used to weld aluminum mainly because of the oxide layers that must be broken up or destroyed to melt the aluminum.
#3. Spot Welding Machine.
Although primarily used to connect pieces with a max. thickness of 3 mm in industry (automotive, electronics, construction, aerospace, metal furniture, medical buildings, rail, etc.), the spot welding machines can weld metals together.
Various metal pieces can be welded (bronze, phosphor, brass, titanium streak, etc.) to comply with spot welding machines, EXCEPT steel metals.
There are types of welders for spot welding machines (permanent/transportable) for specific applications.
The machines applied to weld are as follows:
- Seam Spot Welding Machines. These machines are usually applied to create gas-fluid tight joints in sheet metal fabrications. Examples would be gas fuel tanks in all motor vehicles, steel drums, tin can production, domestic radiators.
- Press Spot Welding Machines. This machine is used in many segments of the metal working industries. The Press Spot Welding Machine can be a fastener or stud & used for confined tight space spots.
- Bench Spot Welding Machines. A bench spot welder is generally used to join wire ends and is mainly used in automotive construction, construction, etc.
#4. Thyristor MIG Welding Machine.
Welding machines are made with the highest quality precision and hard ground parts.
They are preferred by most welders for fixing an object or mounting to a suitable surface. They are good and reliable tools for welding solid core and flux.
These machines provide high gripping strength. Also, its dimensional accuracy, durability and toughness determine demand in the market.
Thyristor MIG welding machines produce a minimal amount of spark, making them unique and easy for control. There simple design allows for ease of welding metals including mild steel, low carbon steel, alloy steel, etc.
#5. Shielded Metal Arc Welding Machine.
Shielded metal arc welding machines operate on the principle of heat produced by electric arc.
This process is also referred to as stick welding, which uses an electric current to flow between the base metal and welding stick (filler rod). SMAW machines can operate in both AC and DC.
In this type of welding the machine uses a filler rod that is coated with a flux to prevent oxidation and contamination by heating and producing a gas (carbon dioxide) while welding.
SMAW welders are considered to be less expensive than other types of welding machines. These machines are used in welding processes in maintenance and repair applications.
#6. Flux Core Arc Welding Machine.
Flux-core welding is generally used for welding thick metals. In this welding machine, the weld uses the heat generated by an electric arc to melt the base metal in the joint area. FCAW machines are best for use in indoor and outdoor environments.
A flux-filled electrode is fed continuously to the weld, so there is no need to stop the welding process and restart the operation. These types of welding machines have less electrode waste and are known to produce some fumes.
Some FCAW welders can run at very high temperatures, which are sometimes close to 1000 amps.
#7. Energy Beam Welding Machine.
The machine uses a high-speed stream of electrons that is tightly focused using magnetic fields to apply the stream to the materials to be joined.
An energy beam welding machine can weld thick metals into thin metals materials and can weld different types of metals.
This type of welding machine can weld specific points on metals, with little or no heat distortion in the welds.
However, as the welder has to perform welding in a vacuum, the electron beam will be absorbed by the air, so this is not for home use.
#8. Atomic Hydrogen Welding Machine.
The AHW machine uses the arc between two tungsten electrodes and hydrogen gas from a hydrogen gas cylinder. It is called atomic hydrogen welding because the arc breaks hydrogen down into atomic hydrogen.
This type of welder requires a good operator to operate.
This process is not as popular as GMAW and is fading slowly, because of the higher costs. AHW machines will work on both thin and thick materials, and are used on the job when welding needs to be done fast.
#9. Submerged Arc Welding Machine.
These machines generally consist of an electric arc created between a continuously fed electrode and the metal to be welded.
This means there is no gas shield but powder flux instead. Also, submerged arc welding machines produce a better quality weld than the other types of welding machines.
In this type of machine, the flux is reusable, therefore minimizing waste. Because it is an automatic or semi-automatic system, the operator does not need to have much experience to operate this machine.
The main drawback of this machine is that it is not portable. Submerged arc welding machines are typically used in plumbing and pressure vessel applications.
#10. Oxy-Acetylene Welding Machine.
Oxy-acetylene welding uses fuel gas and oxygen as the heating mechanism. In this scenario, the flame is the main component, as it produces the heat at the end of the torch.
The heat produced by this flame will melt the base metal together with optional filler metal and create a continuous weld. This machine is mainly for working with thin materials as it is not very useful for thick materials.
The operator is able to control the temperature of the machine as well as the weld beads produced. This style of welding machine is popular around the world due to low-cost and portability.
#11. Transformer Welding Machine.
It converts high voltage, low-amperage AC input current into low voltage, high-amperage AC welding current. The transformer welding machine can run on single-phase power.
Most of the AC power is created, each time the polarity changes the voltage zeros out and an unstable arc state is created. It has been solved by designing better compressive characteristics in the welder and better AC electrodes.
#12. Transformer-Rectifier Welding Machine.
In this machine, the rectifier converts the input AC into output DC so that it can be negative and positive polarity. A single-phase rectifier welder is a type of transformer welder with a rectifier connected to obtain DC output.
These welding machines are made with rectifier technology for MIG welding and have controls to adjust current, voltage, polarity for good welding performance.
#13. Rectifier Welding Machine.
A rectifier welding machine can operate off AC power source and provides a high AC frequency and DC welding current for welding. In this type of welding machine, three-phase AC is sent to the rectifier units, those the rectifier units respond by issuing DC into a single output circuit.
The output from a rectifier welder is always a DC current which can be either a constant DC or variable DC current. The rectifier unit will use a diode, thyristor or transistor to convert AC to DC for the output. There are the usual different kinds of rectifier welders on the market but the operation and function are very similar.
#14. Plastic Welding Machine.
Plastic welding machines do what their name suggests. They weld different plastics together based on how the material behaves with heat when it is melted enough to become fluid and is then pressed together to cool.
According to the industry you find plastic components in automotive, medical, and electronic applications, you will find plastic welding machines used to manufacture toys, household utensils, and heart valves.
Although there are two types of plastic (thermosets and thermoplastics), it is only thermoplastics that are able to be welded together as a proper weld.
Simply put, thermoplastics are melted together by heating the surfaces and then pressed into a weld setup by a plastic welding machine. It is worth noting that there are several types of plastic welding machines.
Plastic Welding Machine Types:
- Spin Plastic Welding Machines- Spin plastic welders are built to apply force while rotating one part of plastic against its unmoving mate. They are being used in all industries that are using a pressure weld based on thermoplastic material, including the automotive industry and even domestic appliances. I am sure those plastic products are produced using a spin plastic welder; aerosol bottles, polyethylene floats, PVC pipes and fittings, and even shafts for transmission.
- Hot Air Plastic Welding Machines- These types of machines can weld most comparable types of chemistry types of plastics. The classic use is producing large chemical tanks, heat exchangers, and, plumber fixtures.
- Laser Plastic Welding – Uses a beam of concentrated light to a specific area on a plastic to absorb the light and then the area under the beam is excited.
- Ultrasonic Plastic Welding- They can be welded for metals as well. Ultrasonic machines convert an electric impulse into mechanical vibrations which allows for a molecular bond of plastics and metals.
#15. Multi-purpose Welding Machine.
In addition to all these welding machines, some types are multipurpose. This means some machines can perform different welding processes. If you do not want to be limited to just one process when welding, you should buy a welding machine that does more than one process.
You do have some MIG welding machines that can work as an FCAW. You also have TIG machines that can work as stick welding machines; however, the operator would need to buy additional accessories or change the welder’s setting.
Factors To Be Consider When Selecting a Welding Machine
Welders should be aware of the different welding processes, but then they should choose a machine that meets the welding objective. Thus, the welder should pay attention to the following things.
- Choosing regular or complex welding machine
- Weld-quality requirement
- Thickness of metal
- Consider welding conditions
- Choosing the right power source
- Types of metal and welders
- Choosing portable welding
#1. Choosing Regular or Complex Welding Machine.
Choosing a welding machine will depend on the skill level of a beginner or trained welder. A beginner can go with a simple welding machine like a MIG welder.
On the other hand, if it is for trained welder, you do a job that has a higher powers. You can choose the high-tech TIG welder as well.
#2. Weld-Quality Requirement.
Choose a TIG welder for high-quality welding work. Otherwise, if you are welding with rusty or dirty metals you may be better off with a stick welder or flux-core welding machine to achieve higher strength welds.
#3. Thickness of Metal.
Generally, going with a stick welding machine is better for welding thicker metals. For thin metals, you will want to use a MIG or TIG welding machine.
#4. Consider Welding Conditions.
The welder will almost always want to take into consideration where the welding point is. As a rule of thumb, for about any windy outdoor conditions or rough outdoor conditions, it is best to go with a stick or flux-cored welder.
#5. Choosing the Right Power Source.
DC output is usually a great power source to go with for welding steel and stainless-steel types of metals. AC output is a great option for aluminum and magnesium types of metals. If you are going to be welding more than one, I would look at a combination AC/DC welding machine.
#6. Types of Metal and Welders.
MIG welding machines are commonly utilized for welding stainless steel, steel, and aluminum alloys. Stick welding machines work great on stainless steel, steel, and cast iron. Also, remember that TIG welders are preferred for all metals or alloys except cast iron.
#7. Choosing Portable Welding.
If the power source is going to be moved, you may need a portable welder. A portable welder could be engine driven or work with an inverter.
Wrapping It Up
I’m positive you agree that welding is a great career choice. Keep in mind, of course, that you do not have to be a welder to own a welding machine. As we mentioned above, if you are trying to locate the best welding machine for home use, you have many choices.
You simply need to know the metals or plastic you will be working with, know the specific features you need, know what a machine costs, and then you can figure it all out.
But before we leave you, are you aware of the above-mentioned types of welding machines, and how you think, what if each was the one for you?