Process Comparisons
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Weld costs, productivity, weld positions, weld materials and welder skill are all criteria to be considered when selecting welding processes and their appropriate equipment and consumables. These factors will significantly affect the quality of the weld and the overall process costs. This chart attempts to define some of the considerations, advantages and tradeoffs to be made in selecting whether to use MMA, MIG, TIG, FCAW or plasma welding. Please select your welding process from menu below:
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MMA |
| MIG |
- MMA is an intermittent, low-productivity process with electrode replacement being necessary at regular intervals
- MMA is predominantly a manual process whereas MIG can be used manually, automatically and robotically
- MMA electrodes are available primarily for ferrous materials and nickel alloys but electrodes can be tailored to suit the composition of the parent material. MIG covers a wider range of standard materials but all grades are not always available
- MMA requires no shielding gas
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- MMA is ideally suited to outside and site work; MIG suffers from draughts affecting the gas shield
- Consumable wastage levels in MMA are high
- MMA requires the slag to be removed, as MIG doesn’t create a slag cover
- Welding speeds are much quicker with MIG, so joint completion times are much lower
- With MMA, only about 65% of the consumable weight is converted into weld metal compared to about 98% for MIG
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| TIG |
- MMA is predominantly a manual process but TIG is used both manually and for the automatic orbital welding of pipe
- MMA electrodes are available primarily for ferrous materials and nickel alloys but electrodes can be tailored to suit the composition of the parent material. TIG covers a wide range of both ferrous and non-ferrous materials
- MMA requires no shielding gas
- MMA is ideally suited to outside and site work, TIG suffers from draughts affecting the gas shield
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- Consumable wastage levels in MMA are high
- MMA requires the slag to be removed, TIG doesn’t create a slag cover
- Welding speeds are higher with MMA but with clean-up added there can be little difference between the processes
- TIG welding power sources are normally capable of being used for MMA welding
- Both processes require good operator technique to produce high-quality welds
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| FCAW |
- MMA is predominantly a manual process whereas FCAW can be used manually, automatically and robotically
- MMA electrodes and flux-cored wires cover very similar ferrous, nickel and hardfacing materials
- MMA requires no shielding gas. Some types of cored wire require a shielding gas but others don’t
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- MMA is ideally suited to outside and site work as are gasless cored wires
- Consumable wastage levels in MMA are high compared to cored wires
- Welding speeds are much quicker with cored wires, so joint completion times are much faster
- With MMA only about 65% of the consumable weight is converted into weld metal compared to about 80% for FCAW
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