TIG aluminum with 98%ar/2%O2??

LD1 · Feb 23, 2016

Anyone ever heard of this? Only vague reference I can find online says "NASA has reported some success with 99%/1% mix on very clean plate"

The MFG I work for is a production weld shop welding cylinders. Most of the cylinders are thin gauge steel and done on mp456 machines, pulse, and 045 wire. But we have an aluminum line that does aluminum cylinders. About 3/16 thickness. Mig process with robots.

But the rework, is tig by hand, on both aluminum and steel.

We have a mixer. All gas in plan is the same thing. 98/2. Even the tig rework for aluminum.

So the reason for my question...I am working on a project. And our maintenance welders use cylinders of gas not hooked to plant supply. We are out of 100% but have a bottle of 98/2. Think it will work?

5030 · Feb 23, 2016

No unless the material is prepped right and sugically clean.

LD1 · Feb 23, 2016

All the aluminum here gets an acid bath after forming prior to welding. So maybe that's the difference?

But that said, prior to having this tig kn the shop, I would take aluminum off our shop rack, and take to a rework station, (running the plants 98/2 mix) and it would weld no problem.

So logic is telling me a 98/2 mix coming from a bottle in the shop is going to be no different than coming from a hard line out at a rework station as I have done in the past many times.