Technical Information on GTAW Oxide Breakup

[canyon289]

Does anyone have a technical reference on AC welding and oxide breakup/cleaning action? I would like to read into the details of the process and learn how it actually works on a molecular level. Thanks in advance

[Primetime]

If I recall correctly from our textbook in school, the exact way that the oxide is removed was actually not known, just that it was a function of the DCEP portion of the cycle. At least at the time the textbook was written that is

[hotrodder]

Short explanation is that it's to do with +ve ion bombardment, occasionally electron flow gets some credit and maybe some witchcraft too but if you want a proper headache inducing version then googling something like 'aluminium welding cathodic cleaning ion flow' will get some results like this one...

http://www.aws.org/wj/supplement/wj0110-1.pdf

From the hits i got it appears that 'sputtering' gets mentioned a lot so something like 'aluminium welding cathode sputtering' will likely return a few more hits if you're feeling particually masochistic

[Kelvin]

Originally Posted by hotrodder

http://www.aws.org/wj/supplement/wj0110-1.pdf

Yikes

[canyon289]

Great info, almost exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks!