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Argon/Carbon Dioxide

Argon/Helium

Argon/Hydrogen

Argon/Oxygen

Argon/Oxygen/Carbon Dioxide

Argon/Helium/Carbon Dioxide

Argon/Carbon Dioxide

Argon/carbon dioxide blends are used with carbon, low-alloy and some stainless steels. Greater amounts of carbon dioxide when added to argon and used at higher current levels, increase spatter.

In conventional MIG welding, slightly higher current levels must be exceeded when using argon/carbon dioxide in order to establish and maintain stable spray transfer. Above approximately 20% carbon dioxide, spray transfer becomes unstable and periodic short-circuiting and globular transfer occurs.

5% Carbon Dioxide/95% Argon

Used for pulsed spray transfer and conventional spray transfer with a variety of material thickness. A 5% mixture may be used for MIG welding of low alloy steels for out-of-position welding. This blend provides good arc stability when welding over mill scale and a more controllable puddle than an argon/oxygen blend.

10% Carbon Dioxide/90% Argon

This blend performs similarly to 5% Carbon Dioxide/95% Argon but the additional carbon dioxide content provides a wider, more fluid weld puddle. This blend is frequently recommended for use with metal-cored wires.

15% Carbon Dioxide/85% Argon

Used for a variety of applications on carbon and low-alloy steel. In short-circuiting mode, maximum productivity on thin gauge metals can be achieved with this blend. Minimizing the excessive melt-through tendency of higher carbon dioxide mixes, while increasing deposition rates and travel speeds, does this. As the carbon dioxide percentages are lowered from the 20% range (maximum spray arc levels), improvements in deposition efficiency occur due to decreasing spatter loss. This blend will support the spray arc mode of transfer.

20% Carbon Dioxide/80% Argon

May be sued for short-circuiting or spray transfer welding of carbon steel.

25% Carbon Dioxide/75% Argon

Commonly used for MIG welding with short-circuiting transfer on carbon steel. It was formulated to provide optimum droplet frequency on short-circuiting transfer using .035 and .045 diameter wire. 25% Carbon Dioxide/75% Argon blend operates well in high current applications on heavy base metal. It promotes good arc stability, weld pool control, and weld bead appearance. This blend will not support spray type metal transfer. This blend can also be used with flux-cored wires.

40% Carbon Dioxide/60% Argon

This mixture is recommended for use with some flux cored wires where improved arc stability, reduced spatter levels and improved performance over light surface contamination are desirable. 

50% Carbon Dioxide/50% Argon

This mixture is used for short arc welding of pipe, particularly when contaminants are present on the surfaces to be welded.

Argon/Helium

Helium is often mixed with argon to obtain the advantages of both gases. Argon provides good arc stability and cleaning action, while helium promotes wetting with a greater width of fusion.

Argon/helium blends are used primarily for nonferrous base metals, such as aluminum, copper, nickel alloys, magnesium alloys, and reactive metals. Helium additions to an argon-based gas increase the effective heat input. Generally, the thicker the base metal, the higher the percentage of helium. Small percentages of helium, as low as 20%, will affect the arc. As the helium percentage increases, the required arc voltage, spatter, and weld width to depth ratio increase, while porosity is minimized. The argon percentage must be at least 20% when mixed with helium to produce and maintain a stable spray transfer.

25% Helium/75% Argon

This blend is used for welding nonferrous base metals when an increase in heat input is needed and weld bead appearance is of primary importance. It is ideal for both GMAW and GTAW of aluminum alloys.

50% Helium/50% Argon

This blend is used primarily for high-speed mechanized welding of nonferrous materials fewer than 3/4 inch thick.

25% Argon/75% Helium

This blend is used for mechanized welding of aluminum greater than 3/4" in the flat position. It increases heat input and reduces porosity of welds made in copper and copper alloys.

Argon/Hydrogen

Hydrogen is often added to argon to enhance its thermal properties. Hydrogen's reducing characteristics also improve weld puddle wetting and produce cleaner weld surfaces due to reduced surface oxidation. Hydrogen enhanced blends are commonly selected to weld 300 series stainless steels.

The higher arc voltage associated with hydrogen increases the difficulty of starting the arc. For this reason, the smallest addition of hydrogen consistent with the desired result is recommended. Additions up to 5% for manual welding and up to 10% for mechanized welding are typical. Ratios beyond this level typically cause porosity in GTAW. Argon/hydrogen blends are primarily used on austenitic stainless steel, nickel, and nickel alloys. Hydrogen is not used to weld carbon or low-alloy steel, copper, aluminum, or titanium alloys since cracking or porosity will result from the absorption of hydrogen.

Special safety precautions are required when mixing argon and hydrogen. DO NOT attempt to mix argon and hydrogen from separate cylinders. 

2% Hydrogen/98% Argon and 5% Hydrogen/95% Argon

These blends are used for manual GTAW applications on 300 series stainless steels. The 95/5 blend is preferred on material thick nesses above 1/16 inch. These blends are also used for back purging on stainless pipe.

10% Hydrogen/90% Argon

This blend is preferred for high-speed mechanized applications. It is used with 300 series stainless steel.

15% Hydrogen/85% Argon

This blend is used most often for welding butt joints in stainless steel (300 series) at speeds comparable to helium, and is typically 50 percent faster when compared with argon. This blend is frequently used to increase the welding speeds in stainless steel tube mills. It can be used on all thick nesses of stainless steel, although concentrations greater than 15% may cause weld metal porosity.

35% Hydrogen/65% Argon

This blend is used most often for conventional plasma arc cutting and gouging of stainless steel. 

Argon/Oxygen

The addition of small amounts of oxygen to argon greatly stabilizes the welding arc, increases the metal transfer droplet rate, lowers the spray transition current, and enhances bead shape. The weld pool is more fluid and stays molten longer, allowing the metal to flow out towards the weld toes. Welding fume may be reduced with these mixtures.

1% Oxygen/99% Argon

Primarily used for spray transfer on stainless steels, one percent oxygen is usually sufficient to stabilize the arc and improve the droplet rate and bead appearance.

2% Oxygen/98% Argon

This blend is used for spray arc welding of carbon steels, low-alloy steels and stainless steels. It provides better wetting action than the 1% oxygen mixture. Weld mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of welds made with 1% and 2% oxygen additions are similar. However, bead appearance will be darker and more oxidized for the 2% blends with stainless steel.

5% Oxygen/95% Argon

This blend provides a more fluid but controllable weld pool. It is the most commonly used argon/oxygen mixture for general carbon steel welding. The additional oxygen permits higher travel speeds.

Argon/Oxygen/Carbon Dioxide

These three component mixtures provide versatility due to their ability to operate in short-circuiting, globular, spray, pulsed or high- density transfer modes. Several ternary compositions are available and their use depends on the desired metal transfer mode and welding position.

The advantage of this blend is its ability to shield carbon steel and low-alloy steel of all thickness using any metal transfer mode applicable. The special tri-blend produces stable welding characteristics and mechanical properties on carbon and low-alloy steels and some stainless steels. On thin gauge base metals, the oxygen constituent promotes arc stability at very low current levels (30 to 60 amps) permitting the arc to be kept short and controllable. This helps minimize excessive melt-through and distortion by lowering the total heat input to base material. The tri-blend mix is generally used for spray arc welding, providing high deposition rates and often-higher travel speeds than carbon dioxide.

Argon/Helium/Carbon Dioxide

Helium and carbon dioxide additions to argon increase the heat input to the weld, which improves wetting, fluidity, and weld bead profile. 

These blends are used for short arc, spray, and pulsed spray arc welding of stainless steel. They provide a higher welding speed, a broad weld with a flat crown and good color match, reduced porosity, and excellent alloy retention with good corrosion resistance.

These blends are widely used for short-circuiting transfer welding of stainless steel in all welding positions. The carbon dioxide content is kept low to minimize carbon pickup and assure good corrosion resistance, especially in multi-pass welds. The argon and carbon dioxide additions provide good arc stability and increased depth of weld fusion. High helium content provides significant heat input to overcome the sluggish nature of the stainless steel weld pool. 

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