ARC Welding Aluminum

[eugenebrooks]

I mentor the weiding on Team 1280's robot and do the welding myself when a gifted student is not available to do it under my supervision. When it comes to the typical thickness of aluminum used on a FIRST robot, TIG with a suitably high current is the best choice. A 175 amp welder is marginal for some configurations of 1/8 aluminum and is pretty useless on 1/4 inch thick aluminum. This should give you an idea of what your welder is capable of if you know its current rating. MIG would be a second choice, but there are significant wire feeding issues for aluminum welding with MIG, so a setup specifically for aluminum is best.

I have tried using the specialty arc welding rods for aluminum in the distant past and the results were so poor that I would not try them again. Your arc welder is best confined to mild or carbon steel, and there wlll be times that you need to weld a steel part so it is a good capabilty to have.

[Peter Matteson]

Just some added info. TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas for those that don't know the accronym) allows the welder to better control the heat input with the torch so that they can better control the heat affected zone and minimize warping the metal.

Also I wouldn't suggest MIG (moving inert gas) welding a long seam straight through as the distortion will significant. It would be better to use a back-stich technique to minimize the thermal effects.