Orion 100C, User Manual

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100c User Manual
40
ch . 6
tries to push the molten metal, while the surface tension tries to keep it in place .
This means:
1 . Some metals with lower surface tension (e .g . silver) are easier to “push” around than metals
with high surface tension (e .g . Stainless) .
2 . Surface tension itself can be used to move metals around . By placing the electrode between
a high and low spot, the melting process will try and “flatten” the two –stealing material
from the high and moving it toward the low .
Pushing Metal is accomplished by placing the electrode at a 90 deg angle from the work piece
surface with the electrode tip on the edge or slightly interior to the edge of the metal mound .
The welding process will then take material from the mound and spread it into the surrounding
material . One should repeat this process until the proper spread of material is achieved .
By placing the electrode between a high and low
spot, the melting process will try and “flatten”
the two – taking material from the high area and
moving it toward the low area.
Placing the weld
electrode on the edge
of a bump will smooth
away the bump as
surface tension spreads
the metal over the
molten base material.
HANDS ON: Use your electrode with several different materials to push metal around, or to use
surface tension to smooth a metal mound out .
Please note that various metals will react differently to pushing and surface tension smoothing .
For example, silver has a relatively low surface tension while in a liquid state . This means that the
plasma push method may be more successful than it would be with stainless steel (with a much
higher surface tension) . On the other hand, because of the high surface tension of stainless steel,
the surface tension smoothing method will proceed quickly .
Pushing metal is especially
helpful if one of the parts to
be joined is heat sensitive. In
this example the horizontal
member is more heat sensitive
or is thinner than the vertical
member. Material is pushed
from the vertical member onto
the horizontal member to
prevent part damage.