Offshore platforms are highly complex structures exposed to severe forces and weather conditions. From design to commissioning, welding plays a critical role in ensuring the structural integrity and safety of offshore rigs. These massive structures rely on welding technologies to produce safe joints in conditions where one bad weld can cause devastating consequences, depending on the criticality of the weld. Therefore, welding process selection, weld application, and inspection quality are the key aspects of ensuring structural integrity in offshore platforms.
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Stainless steel is a very useful material, and as such, it’s used in a wide range of different applications. These days, you can find it anywhere from medical tools and appliances to food service to construction and the aerospace industry. Many of these applications need to take disparate pieces and connect them together without gaps or chemical contaminants like glue, and that means one thing: welding.
Stainless steel can be joined with many different welding processes. However, usually, the most effective process for strong, comprehensive, and robust welds is TIG. When TIG welding stainless steel, there are several unique challenges and pitfalls that you need to avoid. What are they, and how can you make the most out of your stainless welding jobs?
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Plasma cutters, like any machine using electricity, can be a powerful tool in your workshop. However, it can also be a safety hazard, particularly if it’s not properly maintained. Ensuring that your plasma cutter is in good working order, maintaining various parts and replacing consumables as necessary, and giving the whole system a regular inspection is critical to avoiding injury, not to mention the chance of faulty cutting, poor operation, or unnecessary repairs or replacement of the machine.
What should be on your plasma cutter maintenance checklist? How can you avoid unnecessary repairs? Read on to learn more.
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TIG, or Tungsten Inert Gas, is a kind of welding using non-consumable tungsten electrodes, a shielding gas like argon or helium, and a filler rod to melt into a weld pool for deep, thick, robust welds. The resulting joints are strong and, when done properly, can be very even, level, and even beautiful. One thing that many people don’t know – or discover on their own in a moment of desperation – is that TIG can be performed without a filler rod at all.
What is a TIG without a filler rod? How does it work, what are the pros and cons, and should you learn how to do it? Let’s talk about it.
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