Welding Tips and Tricks

I am looking for this info and can find nothing but ads.

I have looked at several msds sheets. A couple have shown 1800F, there were some billed as low melting point at 1300 - 1500f and then on the Harris msds sheet it showed 2795f but it does state that information is for elemental iron.

The vast majority of "basic" steel alloys melt at the same temperature, which is around 2,600-2,700 degF, or right abouts there IIRC. But here is the tricky part that many people get confused with. Temperature is not the same as heat, even though in our daily lives and experience we treat it on an equal basis. Temperature is one of the manifestations of heat/thermal energy, which actually comes about thru kinetic energy at the atomic/molecular level.

The reason I state such non-sense is because I can already tell you have a deeper question in mind. One thing to realize is that 0.023" ER70S-6 (for example) melts at the same effective temperature as does 1/8" ER70S-6. One needs more heat to get there, but temperature wise, they are effectively the same requirement, even if the thermal energy is not.

Another thing to consider is thermal heat-capacity, thermal-conduction rate, and liquid surface tension. These key properties influence how we perceive how much "heat" is needed to melt and flow metals. For example, ER308L and ER308LSi melt at the same temperature for all effective purposes, but the added Silicon helps promote fluidity (among other things as well) by effectively reducing some of the surface tension at the molten metal surface. Same reason ER70S-6 flows a little better than S-3 or S-2.

Oscar wrote: The reason I state such non-sense is because I can already tell you have a deeper question in mind. One thing to realize is that 0.023" ER70S-6 (for example) melts at the same effective temperature as does 1/8" ER70S-6. One needs more heat to get there, but temperature wise, they are effectively the same requirement, even if the thermal energy is not.

I always thought of it this way, the temp of a 20 amp arc is the same as a 150 amp arc, however the 150 amp arc has more volume of heat and as such melts a larger area. Not sure if the analogy is right...

LtBadd wrote:

Oscar wrote: The reason I state such non-sense is because I can already tell you have a deeper question in mind. One thing to realize is that 0.023" ER70S-6 (for example) melts at the same effective temperature as does 1/8" ER70S-6. One needs more heat to get there, but temperature wise, they are effectively the same requirement, even if the thermal energy is not.

I always thought of it this way, the temp of a 20 amp arc is the same as a 150 amp arc, however the 150 amp arc has more volume of heat and as such melts a larger area. Not sure if the analogy is right...

Even in an arc, which itself is a plasma, the temperature is still dependent on kinetic energy of the ionized particles, in this case the electrons.

The space just ahead of the tip of the tungten is definitely hotter as amperage increases. So in this respect, the tig plasma arc is just like a regular old flame. Bigger flame = analogous to hotter arc.

100A TIG arc vs 200A TIG arc.

Metal glows orange at temperatures above 900 deg F. That’s were it starts to emit visible light. As we all know metal glows orange before it melts. So safe to say it’s above 900F.
https://www.steelforge.com/literature/m ... ng-ranges/