Our marketing guru just shot me a link to the new Miller video — Advances in MIG/GMAW Pipe Welding Techniques (and five other videos) for me to review and comment.

Miller says “You can take your pipe welding to a whole new level, and discover advances in MIG/GMAW pipe welding along with the benefits of the patented RMD Pro™ and Pro-Pulse™ weld processes”.

Pipe welding is very technical and the process is “growing” as we ramp up more refining of various fuels, chemicals, gases and water! I didn’t see anything new here, and they are definitely pushing their new power supply features as the way to improve your pipe welding. A couple of things did catch my eye — on one of the videos they used a very basic technique for measuring the root gap — using 1/8″ welding wire. I would strongly suggest if you are engaged in fabricating pipe you need to invest in some high-quality pipe clamps. That way you can set the gap, align the pipe and lock it into position ensuring a consistent weld every time.

Another thing of interest was the New Bernard Centerfire MIG gun parts. Now that is a real innovation and I can’t wait till we start selling those parts in our new MIG gun parts section under development. It’s nice to see a well designed and very useful product featured in the video!

I think the videos are helpful and gives fabricators a good look at what it takes to do quality pipe welding, the only question I have is, is this the only technology, or do Lincoln, ESAB, Thermal Arc and other welding power supply manufacturers have a similar process? Let me know what your experience is with some of the machines listed, and if you know of others — let us know so we can get that info out in the workplace!

The Lincoln Electric® Welding School — an industry leader in welding education– offers courses on the various types of arc welding methods to educate and train students in arc welding safety, processes, techniques and Lincoln® products as well as qualification and certification programs.

Courses cover basics in: plate and sheet metal, pipe welding, plasma, TIG, MIG and Flux Cored Arc Welding…. and advanced courses are offered as well. Check out the full line up of welding classes at the Lincoln Electric website.

They even offer a special Motorsports Welding School, a five day technical program focusing on basic motorsports materials (aluminum and stainless steel) and applications (GMAW, GTAW, Oxy fuel, and plasma cutting). A basic and an advanced course is offered.

The newest addition to the welding school is a welding and safety maintenance course for repair welding applications.

Designed to instruct welders in the automotive repair, construction and maintenance fields, the course demonstrates and instructs students in various welding processes including stick (SMAW), MIG (GMAW) and TIG (GTAW) welding, as well as oxyfuel cutting.
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Packaged with Miller SuitCase 12RC and X-TREME 12VS wire feeders comes standard with Bernard’s Centerfire contact tips …

BEECHER, Ill., August 20, 2007—To meet the demanding needs and harsh environments of construction, shipbuilding, heavy manufacturing and rental applications, Bernard introduces its first ever self-shielded flux-cored gun, the Dura-Flux™.
READ THE BERNARD PRESS RELEASE HERE–>

Nothing new here– this is a very basic MIG welding application (note: no gas nozzle on the front of the gun) Lincoln has dominated this portion of the market with Profax and others offering Lincoln copies.

Bernard, however, has always built the best guns in the industry — this one will probably be the best in its class.

This blog offers a fresh and brutally honest perspective on welding industry news, reviews of innovative companies and products, and profiles of those who are making an impact in the metal fabrication industry.

What we hope you’ll find: tips, tidbits, perspectives you won’t find elsewhere, as well as insights, original interviews and more that should be of interest to the metal fabrication market worldwide. We promise to keep the content fresh, and interesting.

This Blog is primarily written by Jim Watson (aka Joe Welder), a master fabricator, welding equipment designer, industry professional, online distributor, and owner of Arc-Zone.com, Inc.

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