Stainless steel welding wire is divided into solid-core stainless steel welding wire and flux-cored stainless steel welding wire.
Solid-core welding wire
Stainless steel solid wire can be used for both TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) and MIG (Metal Inert Gas) welding, as well as submerged arc welding. MIG welding of stainless steel not only achieves effective welding but also facilitates automation, making it widely used in surfacing and thin plate joining applications. The chemical composition of the MIG welding wire is similar to that of TIG wire, but for certain stainless steel grades, there are MIG wires with a higher silicon content, such as ER308Si and ER309Si, which correspond to ER308 and ER309 wires. With silicon content around 0.8%, these wires reduce the surface tension of the molten metal, making droplets finer and easier to achieve spray transfer, stabilizing the arc. They also improve the wetting of the molten metal, resulting in a smooth weld bead appearance and reducing the likelihood of defects like incomplete penetration, slag, and pores. For submerged arc welding, stainless steel solid wire with the same chemical composition as gas shielded welding wire should be used, but paired with a flux that is free of manganese and has low silicon with high fluorine content.
2. Drug-core welding wire
Stainless steel flux-cored wire can be used for welding stainless steel as easily and effectively as carbon steel and low-alloy steel flux-cored wires. The application of stainless steel flux-cored wire is primarily for MAG welding, which possesses the following characteristics:
1. Compared to manual welding, the deposition speed can be increased by 2-4 times, with a deposition efficiency as high as 90% (compared to only 55% for stainless steel welding rods).
2. Wide range of current and voltage adaptability, easy to set welding conditions, and suitable for semi-automatic and automatic welding.
3. Excellent slag removal, with a shiny weld bead surface. Additionally, spatter is minimal, the arc is stable, and X-ray inspection passes.
