Alloy Choice Guide

ALLOY CHOICE GUIDE
WIRE type and spool size	Quality	Quality	Pkg	Pkg				ID	ID
	Clean	Dirty	Large	Small	S CuAg	Z CrZr	R DHP	Tight	Standard
MILD STEEL COPPER COATED	X		X		X			X
MILD STEEL COPPER COATED		X	X		X				X
MILD STEEL COPPER COATED	X	X		X	X				X


MILD STEEL BARE WIRE	X		X		X			X
MILD STEEL BARE WIRE		X	X		X				X
MILD STEEL BARE WIRE	X			X	X				X
MILD STEEL BARE WIRE		X		X	X				X

	Clean	Dirty	Large	Small	S CuAg	Z CrZr	R DHP	Tight	Standard
MILD FC or MC (knurled, V, Flat)	X		X			X		X
MILD FC or MC (knurled, V, Flat)		X	X	X		X			X
MILD STEEL FC or MC ("U" groove)	X		X		X			X
MILD STEEL FC or MC ("U" groove)		X	X	X		X			X
Drive wheel surface shapes	<> Vee	II Flat	( ) U	** Knurled

ALUMINUM WIRE	X	X	X	X	X				X
Aluminum wire often is run with an "OVERSIZE" tip so you might get requests for next size tip larger than wire.
Some brands of tip have special ID for aluminum.

STAINLESS SOLID WIRE	Small diameter clean large spool wire up to 1.0mm or .040 try S-CuAg otherwise Z-CrZr

STAINLESS CORED WIRE	Most cases Z-CrZr


With all these options when a "PULSE" power supply is introduced then it is difficult, the North American machines tend to
have a higher peak current and CrZr seems best. Where European machines used, if S-CuAg is best choice above try it first.


If any wire is dirty you will notice an accumulation of dirt at the inlet to tip, this may be remedied by more frequent liner changes,
cleaning the wire or changing wire brands. In all cases dirt causes burn backs from plugged liners and plugged tips.
A tight tolerance tip should NOT be used with dirty wire.
If the dirt is dry then CrZr will help in tip life, if it is grease then nothing will help and R-DHP might be best choice for customer
as he will continue to have burn backs once tip is clogged with grease and must change tips more frequently.



Cored wire can be cold drawn or hot drawn in the manufacturing process, soft cored wires will bend and hard cored wires will break.
Soft "hot drawn" cored wires with "U" groove drive wheels should run excellent with S-CuAg. Any cored wires ran with
"Knurled" drive wheels will require Z-CrZr alloy to minimize physical wear. Over tightening of Flat, Vee or Knurled drive wheels
deform or mark the wire causing excess wear and debris from core or copper flaking.


In all cases we will try to help the customer to improve efficiencies of his application.
Only on large expensive tips will we promote the standard R-DHP alloy or as required on large volume accounts.
R-DHP may be required on large accounts that do all manual welding on solid wire and only consider price.


"Burn Back" of the wire to the tip is NOT normally an indication of a poor quality tip but more often a process failure. "Burn Back"
or "Arc Failure" or "Poor Arc Start" are all possible from so many variables. Dirt in liner or tip. Coiled, twisted or bent Mig gun cable
or Mig wire conduit from wire spool to robot. "Arc Length" tip too close or too far from joint. Poor or loose ground or power cables.
Oil,dirt or mill scale on weldment. Excess spatter from galvanized metal. Loose tip or diffuser.
The added electricial conductivity of the S-CuAg will help to minimize the above process issues but NOT elimiate them.


"Wear" or "Key-Hole" or "Oval Shape"of the tip ID is either from too soft an alloy, too long before/between tip changes.
If the customer rarely has tip failures and only wears out the tip then they are close to proper process set up.
This is an excellent opportunity to get very accurate bench mark and trial results, proper alloy and tip ID should prove very benificial.
In robotic / automatic applications this is very crucial to maintain TCP (Tool Center Point) to make sure wire hits the weld joint every time.