Welding materials include welders, welding rods, protective clothing, and materials used to weld. Stick welders use electrodes, while MIG and TIG welders use welding wire and inert gas. Protective gear includes masks, gloves, and leather jackets. TIG welding uses filler wire and a tungsten tip to create high heat.
Welding materials are grouped into specific categories, from the actual welder and welding rod to the protective clothing worn by the person doing the welding and the materials used to weld. Welder styles range from simple stick welders to metal inert gas (MIG) and tungsten inert gas (TIG) models. Welding rods of various sizes, make-up and wire are used in MIG welding and are some of the most common types of welding materials found in a welding shop. Other welding materials such as welding masks, gloves and leather jackets provide burn protection to the welder’s eyes, hands and skin.
With traditional stick welders, the welding materials consist of the welder, commonly called a buzz box due to the buzz it emits when turned on, the electrode holder or “sting” and the earth clamp. Welding rods complement typical welding materials and come in many sizes and flux-coating derivatives, each designed to best serve the individual welding task at hand.
Other welding materials common to all types of welding are welding mask or shield. It is designed to protect the user’s eyes from the intensity of the flash or welding arc. This flash can be equal to or greater than the light emitted by the sun. Heavy leather welding gloves protect the user’s hands from severe burns, and a leather welding vest prevents hot sparks from burning the user’s skin and clothing.
Modern MIG welders use a roll of welding wire instead of the welding rods used in stick welding. Common welding materials for this style of welding include welding wire and a container or cylinder of inert gas, such as argon or carbon dioxide, to shield the weld puddle instead of the flux coating used on welding rods. The wire is stored inside the welder on a spool and fed through the torch, the device used in place of the electrode holder by a trigger-like device mounted on the torch.
While very similar to MIG welding, TIG welders use slightly different weld materials. A length of filler wire is common among weld materials used in TIG welding and is used in place of the roll of wire used in MIG welding. The welding torch contains a tungsten tip which is used to create the very high heat used to melt steel. Once melted, the wire is dipped into the weld pool and this process is repeated until the entire weld is complete.
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