12 Types of Welding Machines

Welding machines are essential tools used in various industries for joining metals and materials together. There are different types of welding machines available, each designed to cater to specific welding techniques and applications. In this introduction, we will provide a brief overview of some common types of welding machines.

Types of Welding Machines

Laser Welder

Laser welder is a smart welding system used to join metal parts with laser beam. It uses the high heat conduction of laser beam to diffuse into the metal, and melts the metal to form a specific molten pool to achieve the purpose of welding. The weldable graphics include points, lines, circles, squares or all drawings by AutoCAD software.

Laser welder uses a laser beam as a heat source. It can deposit, seal and fill the repair functions for the wear, scratches, pinholes, cracks, defect deformation, hardness reduction, sand holes and other defects of metal molds and parts. It can perform precise welding on some thin-walled materials and parts, and realize spot, butt, stitch, and sealing welding.

Laser welding machine is a new type of welding tool with high speed, small heat-affected zone, high positioning accuracy, smooth welding seam. With a handheld laser welding gun, it will be assembled as a portable laser welder, which is easy to move. With a CNC controller, it will be built as an automatic laser welder to finish the welding job without human intervention. With a robotic arm, it will be made as a laser welding robot for 2D/3D welding projects and plans.

Plasma Welder

Plasma welder is a type of professional easy-to-use welding machine that utilizes a transferred arc between the tungsten electrode and the metal part or a non-transferred arc between the tungsten electrode and the nozzle. Use the plasma gas sprayed from the welding torch for protection, and supplement an auxiliary shielding gas around it.

Plasma welding uses a plasma arc as the heat source. The ordinary tungsten arc becomes a plasma arc with high energy density and high temperature through the special compression effect of the plasma arc torch, and the arc stability is also high. When it is used as the heat source, it has strong penetration ability and high speed. The heat-affected zone is small and the welding current adjustable range is large, so it is a method with wide applicability.

Plasma arc welding is used for welded pipe manufacturing, small size welding on thin plate components and equipment, pipe root and thin-walled pipe welding. It is also used in some applications of electron beam welding, which has the advantage of welding in the atmosphere with much lower equipment costs compared to electron beam welding.

AC Welder

AC welder uses alternating current through a special step-down transformer inside the machine and then outputs low-voltage and high-current electric energy for welding. AC stick welder (alternate current stick welder) has the advantages of simple structure, convenient maintenance, no magnetic deviation during welding. Using ordinary electrodes, stainless steel electrodes, cast iron electrodes, and high-power welding machines can barely use 506 electrodes. There are also a wide range of base metals that can be welded (only special materials such as gold, silver, copper, and tin cannot be welded)

DC Welder

DC welder performs welding by converting alternating current into direct current through a rectifier converter. DC stick welders (direct current stick welders) have the advantages of small size and light weight. Its structure is relatively complex, and maintenance is difficult. However, the performance of DC stick welding can completely replace the AC stick welding, and the DC welding machine is more widely used. Including special materials and special electrodes can be welded.

MIG Welder

MIG welder is a high-speed arc welding machine that uses a melting electrode and an external gas as an arc medium, and protects weld pools, metal droplets, and high-temperature in the heat affected zone (HAZ). MIG is the English acronym for Metal Inert Gas. The inert gas (Ar or He) shielded arc welding method with solid wire is called molten electrode inert gas shielded welding, or MIG welding for short. In this method, the tungsten electrode in the torch is replaced by a wire. Others are the same as TIG welding. Therefore, the wire is melted by the arc and fed into the welding zone. Electrically driven rollers feed the wire from the spool to the torch as needed for welding. The heat source is also a DC arc, but the polarity is reversed from that used in TIG welding. The protective gas used is also different. 1% oxygen should be added to argon to improve the stability of the arc.

Like TIG welding, it can weld almost all metals, especially suitable for aluminum and aluminum alloys, copper and copper alloys, and stainless steel. There is almost no oxidation burning loss during the welding process, only a small amount of evaporation loss, and the metallurgical process is relatively simple.

TIG Welder

TIG welder is a portable welding tool that adopts the high-voltage breakdown arc starting method for welding. TIG welding refers to tungsten inert gas shielded arc welding, which uses industrial tungsten or active tungsten as non-melting electrodes and inert gas (argon) as protection, referred to as TIG. TIG welding is suitable for non-ferrous metals and alloy steels that are easily oxidized (Al, Mg, Ti and their alloys and stainless steel). It is suitable for single-sided welding and double-sided forming, such as bottom and pipe welding. It is also suitable for thin sheet metal.

TIG welding technology is based on the principle of ordinary arc welding, using argon gas to protect the metal material, and through high current, the material is melted into a liquid state on the substrate to be welded to form a molten pool, so that the metal to be welded and the material are formed. It is a welding technology in which the metallurgical combination of materials is achieved. Due to the continuous supply of argon gas during high-temperature fusion welding, the welding material cannot be contacted with oxygen in the air, thereby preventing the oxidation of the material.

CO2 Gas Shielded Welding Machine

Carbon dioxide gas shielded welding machine, referred to as CO2 welder, is an advanced fusion welding system that uses the carbon dioxide gas ejected from the nozzle as a protective gas to isolate the air and protect the molten pool. Simple operation in application, suitable for automatic welding and omnidirectional welding. You must pay attention to the working environment and gas protection during working, which is suitable for indoor operations. The input voltage of low-power CO2 gas shielded welder machine is generally 220V AC, and high-power uses 380V AC power. The output voltage is generally 12–36V. It is mainly used for low-carbon steel, low-alloy high-strength steel, high productivity, and can be used for thin plate and medium-thick sheet metal welding.

Stick Welder (Shielded Metal Arc Welder)

Stick welding is also known as SMAW (Shielded Metal Arc Welding), which is a type of manual metal arc welding method that uses consumable electrodes with flux for joint welding, informally as flux shielded arc welding. A stick welder works with wire feeder to feed flux cored wire and solid wire, which makes wire feed easy. The flux cored wire includes gas-shielded flux cored wire and self-shielded flux cored wire. The solid wire is also known as solid metal core wire, which is ideal for outdoor use.

High Frequency Welding Machine

High frequency welding machine is different from other welders, its function and purpose are not just single welding. The heating speed is fast and the efficiency is high. It can instantly melt any metal object. High frequency welder can not only be used to weld various metal materials, but also for diathermy, smelting, heat treatment and other processes. It is suitable for heat treatment quenching, annealing, metal diathermy forging, extrusion forming, and solder welding. Since the whole machine weighs only a few kilograms and is small in size, it does not require acetylene cylinders or oxygen cylinders, so it is easy to carry and is very suitable for outdoor or harsh environments.

Pressure Welding Machine

Pressure welding machine is a type of welder table with a floating device, so that the pressure does not directly act on the turntable, so as to achieve the precise positioning of the hot pressure welding and realize the precise welding. The pressure welder adopts a positioning device on the floating device. When working, the pressure welder can overcome the position deviation caused by the use of the floating device, so that the template and the head fastened to the floating plate do not move back and forth, left and right. A certain vertical pressure is applied to the upper end of the knife, and under the combined action of these two forces, the aluminum wire under the riving knife is regularly creeping through the control of time. In order to obtain high tensile strength points, the best conditions must be selected, which depends on factors such as ultrasonic vibration power, pressure and ultrasonic vibration time. In order to obtain the welding point with high tensile strength, the best conditions must be selected, which depends on factors such as ultrasonic vibration power, pressure and ultrasonic vibration time. The three should be matched with each other to adjust the best point.

SAW Welder (Submerged Arc Welding Machine)

SAW welder is also known as submerged arc welder machine, which is a type of melting electrode electric welding machine with granular flux as the protective medium, and the arc is hidden under the flux layer. Firstly, enough granular flux is evenly deposited on the welding seam of the weldment, then the contact tip and the weldment are respectively connected to two stages of the welding power source to generate the arc, and finally the welding wire is automatically fed and the arc is moved for welding. Submerged arc welder can weld carbon structural steel, low alloy structural steel, stainless steel, heat-resistant steel, nickel-based alloy, and copper alloy.

Spot Welder

Spot welder is a resistance welding machine that assembles the weldment into lap joints and presses it between two cylindrical electrodes, and uses resistance heat to melt the base metal metal to form a solder joint. The spot welder machine uses the high-temperature arc generated when the positive and negative poles are short-circuited instantaneously to melt the material to be welded between the electrodes to achieve the purpose of combining them. The main component of the electric welding equipment is a step-down transformer. The two ends of the secondary coil are the welded metal part and the welding rod. When working, the arc is ignited, and the rod is fused into the gap of the metal part at the high temperature of the arc.

Spot welding machine is used for repairing holes of gold and silver jewelry, spot welding blisters, repairing seams and inlaid parts. It can also be used for false filling of blisters and micro-precision parts such as integrated circuit leads, battery nickel strips, picture tubes, electron gun assembly, and watch hairsprings. The heat-affected zone in the process is small, the size of the nickel spot can be adjusted at will, and the solder joints are fine, flat, and beautiful, without excessive post-weld treatment, and can be accurately positioned. The spot welding speed is fast, the quality is high, and the solder joints are pollution-free and efficient. It is suitable for various metals such as gold, silver, platinum, stainless steel, titanium and their alloys.

The types of welding machines mentioned above represent a selection of common machines used in various welding applications. Each machine has its own unique characteristics, advantages, and limitations. Choosing the right welding machine depends on factors such as the welding technique, the material being welded, the required weld quality, and the specific industry or application. It is essential to consult with welding professionals or equipment manufacturers to select the most suitable welding machine for a particular welding project.