Other Carbon-manganese
Many other MIG wires are available and may include higher carbon grades, 0.25–0.35% carbon and wires deoxidised with aluminium, but the latter are rarely used and are often difficult to obtain.
Supply Methods
Carbon steel MIG wires are supplied in diameters ranging from 0.6mm to 1.6mm with the most common fabrication wires being 0.9, 1.0 and 1.2mm.
Wire is supplied in a range of weights from 1kg for use on small low-current home-use welding machines or spool-on-gun torches to bulk packs containing 150–350kg. These are mostly used for automated and robotic production lines.
Carbon steel MIG wire is usually supplied on reels or wire baskets normally containing about 15–16kg of product. This represents about 1.5–2 days’ supply for a skilled welder in a mass-production environment.
Pay-off or bulk packs are very useful in automated production environments, particularly with robots, because one pack can be joined to the next, giving continuous supply and reducing downtime.
Coating
Carbon steel MIG wire is supplied as either:
- Copper-coated
- Bare wire
- Winding
Wire on reels is also supplied either:
- Layer-wound
- Random-wound
Application
Carbon steel wires are used for all types of application from chairs to pressure vessels, as long as the mechanical property requirements match those required for the component.
Selection of Filler Metals for MIG Welding
Filler wires are generally selected to match the mechanical properties and chemical composition of the parent plate, within certain limitations imposed by the weldability of the steel or the construction code being worked to.
Some carbon steels have a high hardenability as a result of their high carbon content, and are prone to cracking during or after welding. If cracking is a likely problem, lower-strength filler metal may be specified to give a more ductile weld, thus making it more resistant to cracking, while still giving acceptable strength for the application.
Carbon and Carbon-manganese Steels
As a rough guide, the featured wires are suitable for welding low-carbon steels, mild steels, carbon-manganese, engineering and structural steels with carbon content below about 0.25%, tensile strengths up to 600N/mm<sup>2</sup>, and applications down to -30°C or possibly lower. The choice of shielding gas, such as the Argoshield range, can also have an impact of the performance of a wire.
Medium-carbon steels, with carbon content between 0.25% and 0.5%, may also be welded using standard double-deoxidised and triple-deoxidised carbon steel MIG wires, but preheating is necessary.
High-carbon steels, with carbon content between 0.5% and 0.9%, are difficult to weld and carbon steel MIG wires are not normally used to weld them.
Wear-resistant Steels
Wear-resistant steels can be welded with a wide range of consumable types, and are frequently welded using non-matching soft fillers, like the standard carbon steel MIG wires included in this section.
HSLA Steels
Some HSLA steels are basically carbon-manganese steels, and these can be welded with standard carbon steel MIG wires.
Other grades require the use of an alloy steel MIG wire to maintain their properties. However, it is still sometimes possible to weld these materials with a general-purpose carbon steel MIG wire and rely on alloy pick-up from the parent plate to strengthen the weld metal sufficiently, but advice from steel producers regarding consumable selection is recommended.
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