Welding of Thin Stainless Steel

I think, either a MIG of TIG is still most common. Micro plasma and/or LASER welding are alternative ways but more complicated and more expensive in cost. I guess you don't want to step down to the acetylene torch?

If your kitchen material is 2 mm thick, than you build strong.

That is the reason why I have put MIG first

You will do a lot of plies, corners, bends with the finish of the corners most still work for a sander.

So having a slight overdose permits sharper edges, if required.

Downhill MIG, and thinner TIG.

With a lot of respect also for the valuable suggestions of CR4 contributors adaptable a la carte.

I have used pulsed tig and once is is set for your application it will do the best job om thin sheet with the least skill in the least time. Use reisistance, friction or spot anywhere you can tolerate a non sanitary crevice or overlap. Which in food machiery is not likley to be many points. Those weldments are real fast from an assembly point of view.

Reserve mig for thicker things

Thank You, Very much For Suggestion.

Ravi,

Ravifine1@gmail.com

TIG welding may be suitable..

" Currently we were using the argon welding process".

Argon is a shielding gas, not a welding process. So, MIG or TIG is fine, but as dvmdsc suggests, laser welding is the absolute best way to weld thin SS. You can still use Argon.

For small parts that will fit within the vacuum chamber, E-beam is pretty good too. But both laser as well as E-beam welding require a lot of CAPEX outlays for equipment.

Again if you are willing to spend some money up front, the best thing you could do is invest in a good six axis robot or two with a laser welding head and program the weld into the robot and dispense with as much of the labor as possible. payroll is the largest fraction of any business's overhead. Anything to pare off warm bodies from the payroll will save beau coups bucks. Automation is key.

tig would be it for thinner and better grade of weld. and on really thin material (20 ga and up), a pulse on your welder would help

p911

Very interesting. Do you have documentation about it? Would be highly appreciated.

The Resistance Welding Manual, 3rd Edition (1956!) says that spot welding of SS is not much different from welding low-carbon steel. It has to be descaled and degreased, like any other steel. Welding currents and times are generally less than for low-carbon steel, but the exact values would probably be determined by test anyway.

Parts may have to be redesigned to allow access to weld sites from both sides; parts originally designed to be riveted usually adapt well to spot welding, but parts designed to be welded from one side may need a good deal of redesign.

If you can pull it off, though, your manufacturing costs DO go down, and you can get almost perfect consistency from part to part with very little effort.

I heartily agree with you!

happen to post #10 before seeing your reply.

Resistance Welding process may not suit all the joint configurations in kitchen equipments welding, due to its over lapping design requirements. Some times the kitchen equipments will be of round in nature, rectangle, oval and with with lapping at the top edges.

Without proper fixtures it will be difficult to weld bottom to side wall sheets. But well suitable to plain areas like in bus body front wind sheet assemblies, automobile side body welding, panel boards etc.

Sridhar.

Assuming the construction of product is amenable, I would suggest you carryout trial using spot/stitch/seam welding.

Advantages:

Elimination of distortions.

No problem of oxidation.

Very simple fixture requirement.

Ease of joining very thin sheets.

Good savings in cost due to elimination of consumable like gas and filler rods

I had an outstanding success adapting this technique for a far more challenging assembly of Titanium of 0.6mm thickness that too for air borne application!

Think about to do by overlap pressing instead of welding since your parts requirement is not leak proof.

Also think about riveting. Both will reduce the cost and additional process like deburring, buffing

Most of the kitchen equipments are used for storing food and other items both solid and liquid like gravy / edible oils etc. They are supposed to be leak proof and only few utensils can be other way. The same is the case for riveted joints. They are also not leak proof.

The ideal method of joining is welding . It is leak proof, and also with stands low/medium/high pressures while cooking/steaming.

Sridhar.

and even if these lap joints were leak proof, there are sanitary issues with the crevices in the joint,

yes, welding is the ideal method.

p911

Thanks for adding up further details

sridhar

Seam/stitch are resistance welding and do provide hermetic sealing for automotive fuel tanks.

Of course, each welding process has its unique application and it difficult to be judgmental with out design details and assembly drawing.

It isn't so much an issue of the seam being leakproof, but the issue of crevices which may harbor bacteria, this is for food service after all. Crevices by the way are also a prime spot for corrosion as well.

use Spot welding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_welding