Study of the Tig Keyhole Technique Through Comparative Analysis Between Two High Productivity Torches in Joints of the Middle Thickness Carbon Steel Plates

Abstract

In the common reference bibliography, the welding through Keyhole technique it always associated with welding processes with a high energy concentration, such as Laser processes or Plasma processes. New advances in TIG torches are changing the way as the TIG welding process should be considered. An example of these new advances is the commercially known as Infocus torch, which according to its manufacturers, the main feature of these torch is his capacity of energy concentration on the electrode tip, through an increase the electrode cooling power, which differentiate the Infocus of one conventional TIG torch. This concentration of energy allows the torch Infocus to work with Keyhole technique. Therefore, the objective of this work was to study the feasibility of a conventional TIG torch to use the Keyhole technique, with the same working conditions that the torch commercially known as Infocus. Through tests it was possible to confirm that the TIG process can effectively work with Keyhole technique, without need for a special torch. However, the electrode of the torch Infocus has a greater life compared to a conventional electrode of the same composition, increasing the productivity.

Keywords:
Keyhole; TIG; CF-TIG; Infocus