Welding has variety in the process. Depending on the material joining, you can opt for the welder that is just right for you. Amongst a wider welder gamut, today we shall talk about what a spot welder is and how it works for welding. If you haven’t used this type of welder before, it’s about time you should know. Give this post a read and know more.
What is a Spot welder?
You might be wondering about the fact, why is it called “spot” welding? Well, the answer is pretty simple, it is because spot welding produces little dots which appear as a spot if you look collectively. However, the weld between copper electrodes is called nuggets. Interesting terms!
A spot welder is commonly called a resistance spot welder in industries. A spot welder makes its usefulness mainly for joining two or more two metals sheets in conjunctions. The process is done by applying a reasonable pressure and heat attainment from an electric current that targets the weld area.
Spot welder is an efficient tool for welding and it works best with steel due to the lower thermal conductivity and higher electrical resistance. Hence, steel is a rather easy material when it comes to being welded with the spot welder. However, you can also weld other materials with this machine including stainless steel, titanium, and nickel alloys.
A spot welder leans on the principle of joining copper alloy electrodes to the sheet base. Moreover, to create enough desirable pressure the use of electric current is made useful. This current creates heat through the passage through resistive materials that include low-carbon steel.
Where spot welder is used
Spot welder has its best performance in a number of industries including rail, aerospace, white goods, automotive, metal furniture, constructions, electronics, and device manufacturing, medical building, and more.
Certainly, welding is a powerful process that requires a lot of dedicated assistance and professional knowledge to handle the gear. Spot welding can also be automated when it is combined with robots or manipulated systems.
Are there any cons of a spot welder?
Yes, like anything a spot welder also has its flip side, and some of its major problems are as follows:
- The cost of the electrode is a big concern
- Electrode indentation on metals
- Spot weld is not good with cold weld; it welds weak
- Weld quality gets affected and creates risk if the welding is too close
- Due to the spatter there is no neatness and hence aesthetics cuts back
- Electrode misalignment minimizes the welding quality or efficiency
Conclusion
Today we talked about spot welding especially to elucidate its basics to the newbies. To sum up, spot welding is a process to join material using current and heat pressure for joining sheet metals together. The unique and somewhat confined parameter of a spot welder is that it cannot deal with multiple applications of material joining unlike TIG or MIG, still, it stands out for its specific approach.