Welding Video of flux cored arc welding FCAW

Welding video.... When you think of flux cored arc welding what comes to mind? A little red Lincoln machine from Home Depot? or high amperage welding of 2 inch thick steel on a skyscraper? The truth is flux core welding is for both. Flux core wire is made with the fine granules of flux on the inside of hollow wire, unlike stick welding where the flux is baked on the outside.

Flux core wire is available in diameters as small as .030" and as large as 7/64" . Small diameter wire does not take much current for it to melt and so it is used on the little 115 v mig machines like Home Depot sells. Small .030 and .035 wire is used for thin metal like thin auto body panels. The larger flux core wires are used where high amperage is need to weld thick beams like you see being welded in this video. Some flux core wires are self shielding meaning they do not require gas shielding.

Some fcaw wires are designed to be used with shielding gas. You might be wondering why not just use bare wire mig if you are going to use shielding gas anyway? Well every welding process has its application. The reason is that very high deposition rates with few defects can be attained with flux core that is shielded with c02 or a c02 argon mix.

Some self shielded wires that do not require any gas do not meet stringent charpy v notch testing requirements for toughness.

Did you notice that big honkin spool of flux core wire? and its spinning pretty fast too considering it is such a big spool of large diameter wire. That is a good thing when you are welding steel as thick as the beams in this video.

These ironworker welders are layin down some metal. Even so , it takes a long time to make welds like this on really thick sections.

A large amount of welding like this is still accomplished using stick welding with low hydrogen electrodes, but whenever fluxcore fcaw welding can be used, it really speeds up the job because there is no stopping to come up for air. No rod stubs wasted, and no unnecessary stops and starts where flaws tend to happen.
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