Welding Speed for Aluminum Hulls

[jprev]

I know I opened myself up for the, "well what thickness is the aluminum, what is the type of aluminum, 5052, 5086 or 9093 H-116, and what orientation will the welder be looking at, over-head, etc, etc...".

I know there are a zillion different things that could effect welding efficiency. Say the welder is in a comfortable position doing a welded chine of 5052 .125 or .1875 Forget about duty cycles, coffee breaks and overheating the material. Say they are useing a pretty good Miller with a quality spool gun. How many inches per minute could they run?


Thanks,

Joe

that depends totaly on your welding abilities and how hot you are welding
the hotter you weld the faster you go
there is an optimum point though where you no longer are producing or being effitient
i can run up to 40 inches a minute or more in a 1/4 inch fillet
size of weld bead makes a huge differance
there are to many variables to be able to answer your ? well

[Arrowmarine]

I was thinking of your question while welding the other day and timed myself. I can do 120 to 150 inches per min.(two 5 foot passes) on .125 thick components but that is SCREAMING. The weld bead is only 1/8" wide or less. Good for low stress cosmetic welds and not much else. Be sure if you are following the "hotter and faster rule" that you are actually penatrating into the metal and not just not just laying a pretty skin over the top. Just when you think you've layed the perfect bead, you set down your gun and POP! theres a two foot crack right thru the middle of it.(incidentaly, I feel that 75% of aluminum welders weld too hot. My own opinion) On a chine weld like you stated I would say a good estimate would be 15 sec. for every 12" pass so......48" per min. Make your passes longer and you will save time(seconds here and there, but it adds up, believe me) I think buds numbers on 1/4" sound about right. Obviously the thinner the material the faster you can go. Funny, after welding on boats for 19 years you would think I know the answer, but I've never really paid attention to Inches per min. It's more how many boats a year. Hope this helps.

Joey< wishing he had a dollar for every inch of weld he's run:-)

[jprev]

Thanks for the info. It has really helped me out.

Joe