Not too long ago we got an email from a customer wondering why–  since they had spec’d out Made-In-The-USA SYLVANIA tungsten electrodes– we had sent them GTP tungsten electrodes.  They even sent photos!

Back in 2008 OSRAM Sylvania Tungsten and Powder officially became Global Tungsten & Powders Corp. (GTP) a leading supplier of powders, semi-finished products and components made from tungsten, molybdenum and phosphor.  It’s only been recently that packaging redesign has reflected this change, so soon you’ll see these boxes in your own shop.

You may miss the the SYLVANIA packaging, but don’t worry, the insides are still the same top quality tungsten.

GTP Tungsten Rod is manufactured by powder-metallurgical manufacturing techniques. Hydrogen-reduced tungsten powder is produced to rigidly controlled purity, particle size, and size distribution. The raw tungsten is consolidated by pressing and sintering the material into billets, which are then worked by rolling or swaging them into rods. Smaller sizes are produced by subsequent drawings.  This controlled manufacturing process produces top quality tungsten.  (If you want to know more about how Arc-Zone.com rates its tungsten suppliers, check out Tungsten Electrodes:  What’s the Difference).

SYLVANIA® GTP is the only U.S. manufacturer of tungsten electrodes (and is in stock and ready to ship from Arc-Zone.com). All SYLVANIA® GTP tungsten electrodes comply with AWS Specification A5.12 98. For details, download the GTP Tungsten Technical Bulletin (.pdf).

And when you’re ready to order your Sylvania GTP Tungsten, head on over to our webstore and place your order.  And if YOU don’t like what you see when you open your box, give us a call. Remember we have a Satisfaction Guarantee, and a NO HASSLE return policy–  Our goal is to make sure you get what you need to Weld Like A Pro(tm) !

Miller Electric Mfg. Co. has just introduced WeldX™, a revolutionary new apparel line for personal welding protection that is lightweight and breathable, yet provides exceptional flame and spatter resistance–available at Arc-Zone.com!

This stylish safety apparel comes in classic black and is sixty percent lighter than most leathers and also lighter than many flame resistant cotton garments, WeldX represents the next generation in protecting welders from the hazards of heavy-duty welding, while also reducing the potential for heat stress-related injuries.

The WeldX line offers protection in a welding apron, welding bib, cape sleeves, welding jacket (pictured above) and welding sleeves.

Originally developed for military applications, Miller’s new WeldX fabric combines the lightweight and breathability benefits of cotton with exceptional spatter and flame resistance to provide maximum welder protection.

Flame resistance is inherent to WeldX – laundering will not degrade its performance over time. WeldX is based on a fabric technology that has proven its performance and durability in iron production, race car driving, high voltage electrical work, firefighting and other potentially catastrophic applications. The fabric consists of a blend of oxidized acrylic fibers and modern strengthening fibers, which are then treated with a proprietary compound that allows the resulting material to “shed” spatter and sparks upon contact. The proprietary compound is embedded into the individual fibers rather than being applied topically, allowing the garment to retain a high degree of pliability and maneuverability. In even the most extreme environments, WeldX will not burn, melt, ignite or shrink.

The newest addition to Miller’s popular Arc Armor™ line of welding protection, WeldX garments are available as standard welding jackets, sleeves, cape sleeves, bibs and aprons, offering a range of protection options for a variety of applications and industries. For most applications, WeldX will deliver the highest level of welder protection required without a corresponding increase in heat stress, keeping your welders safe, comfortable and more productive.

About Miller
Miller Electric Mfg. Co., headquartered in Appleton, Wis., is a leading worldwide manufacturer of Miller brand arc welding equipment and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW).
For more information, visit Miller’s Web site at www.MillerWelds.com

ARC-ZONE.COM®, INC. DELIVERS PLASMA ARC WELDING ACCESSORY KITS

Carlsbad, Calif.— Whether you’re using the Thermal Dynamics 2A, 3A, 4A and PWM300 Plasma Arc Welding Torches, setting up a new Plasma Arc Welding station, or optimizing your existing welding station, Arc-Zone.com’s Plasma Arc Welding Accessory Kits are fully loaded with a variety of performance proven parts.

Designed by Arc-Zone.com technicians, the kits allow you to fine-tune your existing plasma arc welding torch, or get your new torch dialed in and ready to weld.

Operations manuals often suggest options for various amperage settings, adjustments and top sizes. “The benefit of the Arc-Zone kit is that every part you need is stored in one convenient and rugged kit box,” says Jim Watson, founder and CEO of Arc-Zone.com. “From replacement shield cups, back caps, pre-ground electrodes, shield cup gaskets, to long tips you’ll have easy access to the parts you need to customize your torch, minimize downtime, and you’ll have the quality to minimize variables.”

Whether you’re ordering the standard kit or the deluxe kit, you’ll also get Joe Welder’s Guide to Optimizing Your Plasma Arc Welding Torch. And re-ordering parts for your kit is easy: each kit is labeled with a custom made lid card that identifies each component, and a super cool Weld Like A PRO™ sticker.

Founded in June 1998, Arc-Zone.com®, Inc. delivers proprietary, brand name and OEM replacement parts and accessories for GMAW, GTAW and Plasma Arc Welding and Cutting applications to customers worldwide.

Though not affiliated with Thermal Dynamics Corporation, Arc-Zone supplies OEM and high quality replacement parts manufactured to demanding specifications and engineered to be interchangeable with Thermal Dynamics® parts, are not OEM parts and are not endorsed by Thermal Dynamics®

For more information, visit the Arc-Zone.com web site at www.arc-zone.com, call 760-931-1500 or email sales@arc-zone.com.

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Arc-Zone.com is the world’s leading supplier of high-quality tungsten grinding machines engineered to improve weld-quality and safety for TIG and Plasma Arc Wedling. We deliver and support the best quality machines from a variety of global manufacturers, offering a wide range of machines from our own Sharpie(tm) hand-held grinders great for the welding hobbyist to portable and bench top machines for the garage, production shop floor or job site.

Not too long ago we identified an opportunity to innovate the industry by introducing a line of low-impact recyclable diamond grinding wheels for our line up of production tungsten grinding machines and we found a local manufacturer that we thought was going to benefit our customers in terms of price and quality. Unfortunately, when we received the first production run, they were not at all what we expected, and did not match our agreed upon production standards. In business sometimes you need to take the product to market and perfect it based on customer feedback. So we shipped some of the “new style” low-impact recyclable wheels to a select group of customers. And let me tell you, we heard about it straight away. First off the wheels looked completely different and did not have the bright nickle plated finish that they were used to, most people thought they were cheap imports! We even lost a few customers, and it will take some time to get them back.

Since then, we’ve been working with an established world-class manufacturer right here in the U.S. of A — and we are very happy with them, and the wheels are absolutely the finest available. We’ve also done a lot of research and tested these wheels so that they meet the stringent requirements and the needs of our customers.   In fact, take a few minutes and read the Technical Focus Sheet on Grinding Tungsten Electrodes with Diamond Wheels (.pdf) that I put together. The paper includes information on dry grinding, wet grinding, types of wheels and tips for maximizing your wheel’s life.

Now we are able to supply the highest-quality replacement diamond wheels for all your tungsten grinding machines. It’s great to be able to offer a superior quality product, at a fair price, and best of all they are made in the U.S.A.

Don’t buy the misleading advertising other companies are doing, they charge up to $299.00 per wheel – for a cheap import wheel from China (that they pay $35.00 for) — That’s Ridiculous. At Arc-Zone.com® we supply the highest-quality wheels Made In the USA for a lower price — That’s Ridiculously Awesome!

Wheel Core Exchange™
Arc-Zone.com® now offers a Wheel Core Exchange program for your spent diamond grinding wheels! Return your worn-out diamond grinding wheels to Arc-Zone.com, and we’ll give you a $25.00 discount on a new wheel purchase or a store credit (applies to new wheels $100.00 or more). By returning your used wheels, you’ll reduce the environmental impact of discarded diamond grinding wheels. Better still, you’ll reduce the impact on your wallet!

We stock wheels for all populartungsten electrode grinders – Sharpie™, Turbo Ace, Super Turbo, Turbo-4, Radnor, Weldmark®, OKI, Best Welds, Abicor Binzel®, Diamond Ground Products Piranha II, Piranha III and DGP*, Neutra, Neutrix, Ultima TIG and Black Gold, Weldcraft® (formerly Georg Fisher +GF+ ESG Plus) Pro-Fusion Sharp Shooter, Intercon TIG 10/175, CK Worldwide® TurboSharp V and more! Custom diamond grinding wheels available by request.

For automated TIG and Plasma Arc Welding applications where minimizing variables is imperative, consider Arc-Zone’s Custom Pre-Ground Tungsten Electrode Program. We offer precision pre-ground electrodes prepared to your exact specifications from tip geometry to ground or polished finish. And for high production environments we even offer a blanket purchase order option so we’ll always have your electrodes in stock and ready to ship to you when you need them. Additionally, we offer a RE-grinding service that will save you and your organization valuable time and money!

If you have any questions about which diamond wheel you need, the tungsten grinder that will work best with your budget and your application, or to find out if you would benefit from our pre-ground program, contact an Arc-Zone.com technical expert today!

*Arc-Zone.com®, Inc. is not affiliated with some of the companies referenced. We supply high quality replacement parts manufactured by or for Arc-Zone.com® to demanding specifications. The parts are engineered to be interchangeable with OEM parts, are not OEM parts and are not endorsed by some of our friends listed above.

One of the joys of working on the internet is that corrections can be made quickly.  You know what I’m talkin’ about:  typos, wrong part numbers, confusing images….

Print, however, is different.  An operations manual, for example, printed hundreds of thousands of times over– with an error–  could potentially cause confusion, and none of us are immune– not even the most respected manufacturers.

We recently ran across just such a case, when a manufacturing engineer contacted us via this very blog, in response to an article we’d posted about the installation of the ceramic electrode insulator/gas distributor on the Thermal Dynamics 3A Plasma Arc Welding Torch.

Allen wrote:

The article about Plasma Arc Welding Tips from June 2007 shows a particular way to install the insulator sleeves part # 9-2240 for a Thermal PAW 3A torch. This is opposite to what my Thermal factory manual says. The manual says the collar goes towards the tip and your article says the collar goes to the torch cap. I’m confused now.

I emailed a response that included a direct link to the manufacturer’s data sheet on the 3A PAW torch which correctly shows the direction of the installation of the part.

Imagine my surprise when Allen wrote back to tell me he had called the manufacturer himself and a service tech confirmed that the manual was incorrect!

Now I’m not saying we’re always right, but I am saying it is always a good idea to double check, and ask questions.  When you’re talking about Plasma Arc Welding, there are so many variables, and the last thing you want is for you an incorrectly installed part to cause a $500 torch failure.

At Arc-Zone.com we carry a complete line of performance proven no-OEM plasma arc welding torches and replacement parts for the Thermal Dynamics(R) torches, manufactured to exacting specifications to meet your production needs.

So give us call if you’re in need of plasma arc welding torch replacement parts, accessory kits, and be sure to ask about our blanket purchase order program.  We’ll make sure you not only have your parts installed correctly, we’ll make sure you have the parts you need when you need them.

As many TIG welders know, thoriated (red) tungsten has in the past, been a preferred tungsten electrode blend.  But that’s old skool thinking– there’s better options out there… more on that later.

If you’re like me, you enjoy learning about all kinds of things especially as it relates to welding and metal fabrication.  I recently stumbled across this column over at Salon.com, Blogging the Periodic Table.  It’s a fascinating look at each of the elements in the periodic table–  and each one has a story.  You can read all about Thorium. Though this column doesn’t include information on welding, there some interesting and fun facts sprinkled throughout.

Now if you’ve been TIG welding for a while, you’re all too familiar with the RED tungsten electrodes.  This thoriated blend of tungsten electrode is popular because it is a good general purpose electrode (good for all metals and all machines) has excellent arc behavior and lasts long….  because of the nature of thorium, however, there are some health concerns due to vapors and grinding dust. At Arc-Zone we recommend you only use it if you are contractually required to, especially as there are better alternatives out there.

For more detailed information on health and safety concerns regarding the use of thoriated tungsten electrodes, check out the AWS Safety and Health Fact Sheet: Thoriated Tungsten Electrodes.

We almost always recommend our ArcTime Hybrid Tungsten… it is truly a state-of-the-art improvement over the old thoriated electrodes with excellent ignition properties, low burn off rate and it lasts a long time! I’ll let our spokes model tell you more about it:

To explore other options, check out Arc-Zone.com’s Guide to Selecting Tungsten Electrodes.

One should never get tired of watching welding videos.  Or, at least, I don’t.  So, if you’re like me and you need more welding footage in your life, check out this Welding Theatre website I found.

It’s amazing and it has videos from nearly every company that you can think of; you can even submit your own.

Actually, it has videos for everyone except Arc-Zone.com, but we all know you can just go to our website to see those.

We asked Arc-Zone’s Sales guy Tim to guest post here about the revamped Trailing Shield section on the Arc-Zone.com website. He’s taken the lead in making sure we offer all the high tech trail shields and gas purging cups for TIG and Plasma Arc Welding applications.

Trailing in the Fourth Quarter

When a sports team is trailing in the fourth quarter, they put they best players in to bring it home. Welding is no different. When welders need the absolute best weld and gas coverage, they go to their best equipment. And for the best purge gas coverage, welders utilize high-tech trailing shields and purging cups.

Many TIG and Plasma Arc Welding applications require specific gas coverage and Arc-Zone.com understands the importance of the strength of the weld and how poor gas coverage can lead to poor weld quality. To correct the helm, Arc-Zone.com redesigned an entire section dedicated to gas Purging Cups, Standard and Extra-Long Straight Trailing Shields and Multi-Diameter Curved Shields.

In addition to maximizing shield gas coverage, these high-tech trailing shields lower gas usage and ensure weld strength. Designed for the most popular TIG (GTAW) and Plasma (PAW) torches, the cups and trail shields come ready to install on your torch.

Arc-Zone also offers a full line of welding accessories to adapt the trailing shields and cups to multiple tungsten sizes to help keep your equipment efficient. So now when you need 4+ inches of trailing shield gas for your 17 series TIG torch or cylindrical coverage for your 3 inch pipe with your 22 series mounted TIG torch… and you need to triumph over the competition by having the best weld, you know who’s got you covered.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you need more info on any of these trailing shields, give our sales team  a call. They’re  up to speed on these highly engineered accessories and will make sure you get the right equipment for your team.

Roger from the Oak Ridge National Labs contacted us looking for 1/2″ diameter tungsten electrodes…
If you’re not familiar with Oak Ridge, they are a

“multiprogram science and technology laboratory managed for the U.S. Department of Energy by UT-Battelle, LLC. Scientists and engineers at ORNL conduct basic and applied research and development to create scientific knowledge and technological solutions that strengthen the nation’s leadership in key areas of science; increase the availability of clean, abundant energy; restore and protect the environment; and contribute to national security.

ORNL also performs other work for the Department of Energy, including isotope production, information management, and technical program management, and provides research and technical assistance to other organizations.”

One can only guess what they’re welding up there!

I’m pretty sure they contacted us because Arc-Zone.com offers the widest variety of tungsten electrodes for TIG and Plasma Arc Welding applications. We offer quality brand names like ArcTime™ , Amplify™ MultiStrike™, SYLVANIA and Weldcraft® and all the popular blends like 2% Ceriated, 1.5% Lanthanated, 2% Thoriated, Pure Tungsten, Zirconiated Tungsten, Rare Earth blends and the new ArcTime Hybrid™ Electrodes.

We also stock (ready for immediate delivery) the most common diameters for welding from .040″ to 1/8″ Other diameters up to 1/4″ are usually available to ship in a couple of days.

But 1/2″ diameter tungsten electrodes– that’s a different story. For a request like that, we would need to quote a special run of 1/2″ diameter….

If you want to learn more about tungsten, check out the newest addition to the Arc-Zone.com family, TungstenElectrodesOnline.com, a comprehensive resource website for information about tungsten, tungsten production, the properties of tungsten and specifically the use of tungsten electrodes in TIG and Plasma Arc Welding. And if you have special need for tungsten electrodes, use the handy Request A Quote form.

We have several large industrial corporations that we supply Plasma Arc Welding (PAW) torches and replacement parts to. One of them came to us for some help resolving inconsistent welds on a Thermal Arc® Ultima 150 Plasma Arc Welding machine with a 4A PAW torch and lead assembly. They were frustrated and had tried many different solutions from a variety of sources. I went through our basic PAW check list (which you can find in the Arc-Zone.com Welding Library– “Optimize Your Plasma Arc Welding Torch”). We did find two areas to improve, but the issue was still there. That’s when I asked “when was the last time you changed your lead set?”

“We just changed torches, we do that pretty often,” he said. “Why would we need to change the leads?”

With Plasma Arc Welding there are two important things to consider:

1. Plasma Arc Welding Torch Lifespan.
PAW torches have a life span of about three months. Now anybody that is familiar with automated TIG applications can’t understand why Plasma Arc Torches fail so often. There is no easy answer, but it is a characteristic of Plasma Physics. There are many more things going on inside that PAW torch than in a TIG torch — two power circuits, two gas distribution and flow paths, two water channels, tungsten electrode insulators etc. Bottom line is you should always have a spare Plasma Arc Welding torch on hand because when they fail they are junk. You’ll have no warning, and you’ll be down until you get it replaced.

2. The Lead Set
I call them leads because they consist of multiple hoses and cables inside a jacketed cover. And they wear out. Operators often don’t think to add the leads to their preventative maintenance schedules but they should.

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