Cored Wire Uses and Advantages

What is cored wire and what are its uses? The use of cored wires, which are produced by forming steel strips into a pipe form and filling them with various chemicals in powder form, is becoming widespread in many sectors fast. The use of cored wire for different methods such as joining, hard facing, repair, and maintenance welding has begun to prevent the use of solid wire and electrodes.

So, why are cored wires, which have relatively higher prices, started to be preferred more than traditional methods? Let us try to scrutinize the prominent features of the method such as the advantages it provides in reducing the total production costs, the quality of the weld and weld metal deposition rate.

Advantages of Cored Wire Compared to Solid Arc Welding Wires

The higher weld metal deposition rates provided by cored wires compared to solid wires directly affect manufacturing times. Low burr formation despite high deposition rate reduces the labor costs required for burr cleaning after manufacturing. In addition, the cored wires, which provide larger droplet weld metal transfer, provide excellent penetration for the weld surface sidewalls.

One of the most important advantages of cored wires over solid wires is that they allow welding in all positions. Penetration welds can be carried out at high welding speeds with the use of cored wire, even in processes where the control of the weld pool is difficult, such as overhead and vertical welding positions.

Advantages of Core Wires Compared to Covered Electrodes

The cored wire technology, which has rapidly replaced the use of welding electrodes, stands out particularly with its production speed and efficiency advantages. In the welding electrode application, the stops that occur at the end of each electrode due to the nature of the work are eliminated by the mechanized cored wire welding method used with a gas metal arc welding machine.

The unusable waste that occurs at the end of the electrode while welding with the electrode is also a negative point for production efficiency.

As the weld metal deposition capability of cored wires is better than electrodes, it is understandable that it is a natural process for core wire technology to replace the use of electrodes, considering the advantages it provides in view of production efficiency and speed.

Flexibility to Intervene with Formulation according to Needs

Core wires can offer solutions by applying different formulations by the manufacturer to meet the needs of the material to be welded. In particular, the low welding capabilities of high alloy solid gas arc welding wires can be eliminated with the use of cored wire with suitable formulations.

Improvements in weld quality and advantages in mechanical values of the weld metal should not be overlooked with appropriate formulations.

Deoxidation

While the cleanliness of the material to be welded directly affects the quality of the weld, we often encounter situations where the surface cleaning process cannot be performed 100% due to the additional labor costs and the dynamics of the production that competes with time, particularly in project-based works. It is possible by means of using cored wire to remove the elements that cause problems such as pores and cracks, which adversely affect the weld quality, like oil, rust, and dirt remaining on the material, from the weld pool by trapping them in the welding slag, especially thanks to the deoxidizing chemicals in the cored wire.

Other Important Advantages and Applications of Cored Wire

The protective atmosphere created by the core material during welding ensures that cored wires are preferred in sectors where open air welding is required, such as the shipyard and construction sector. Especially gas-free, self-protected types of cored wires minimize gas consumption costs and eliminate the negative impacts of open-air working conditions that adversely affect the weld pool. Core wires such as Hardcor 65 O, Hardcor 63 O are frequently preferred in hard filling applications.

GeKa Elcor R 71 rutile type cored welding wires, which are used with CO2 gas as a shielding gas, provide production efficiency with their high melting capacity and the possibility of welding in any position at high current intensities. GeKa Elcor R 71, which is frequently preferred especially in shipyards, steel construction, and machinery manufacturing, stands out with its low hydrogen level (H5). Thanks to the low hydrogen content in the weld seam, cracks due to hydrogen can be prevented. Thanks to the CO2 gas, which has a lower cost compared to the mixed gas, savings in shielding gas costs are achieved.