TIP & TRICK WELDING TITANIUM

By Sabandi Ismadi

WE/ IIW Certified

"Titanium Flows like honey...but it's sticky too!.. "

Tig Welding Titanium is hard! Tig Welding titanium is easy! I said

it’s hard and it’s easy.

So Which is it?

The answer is YES. What do I mean by that?

Well, it’s hard because there are more things that need attention than
with tig welding stainless steel. Also the rod becomes very gummy when
you are welding and it wants to stick on the outskirts of the weld. (Tip:
feed the rod into the center hot part of the puddle)

The 3 c’s also come into play: Clean, Clean, and Clean. Titanium has to be
very clean from oil, grease, coatings, and oxides before welding takes
place. Oil or grease will cause porosity like you see in this x-ray negative
of a titanium weld. But porosity is the least of your problems.

Titanium Welding Colors

Titanium Welding colors and Contamination

The worst problems arise from:

1. Using a filler rod other than titanium (like stainless steel or nickel alloy
rod). If you weld titanium with anything other than titanium, you will hear
the sound of the weld cracking like glass: tink, tink, tink… you can
actually break the weld by tapping it lightly with a ball peen and man is it
brittle.

2. Not shielding the back side of the weld with argon. If what you are
welding is thin enough to penetrate or even get red hot, you absolutely
must shield both sides of the weld adequately or the weld will be very
brittle.

3. Not using a large nozzle/cup or trailing shield to shield the weld puddle.
Using a normal size nozzle like a #7 (7/16” diameter) will not effectively
shield the heated area to prevent the embrittlement that occurs when
titanium gets too hot without shielding gas.

Titanium absorbs elements like oxygen and nitrogen at these

temperatures and depending on what reference you use, 800 deg F.
seems to be the cutoff for keeping it argon shielded. Discoloration on
titanium is not a problem by itself and is more of an indicator that there
might be a problem. Because it is known that it happens in a certain
sequence: straw, brown, purple, blue, dull salmon pink, grey with oxide
flakes. It is part of the inspection criteria. These images show the varying
levels of discoloration.

Some welding codes limit discoloration to straw color. Some welding

codes allow a little blue discoloration in certain applications. Ideally the
weld will be perfectly silver like the first weld shown. That should be the
goal. Light straw and even brown discoloration can be acceptable if the
discoloration is on the welded side. Discoloration on the penetration side
of a full penetration weld means that the actual puddle was exposed to
contamination from air. That’s why purge monitors should be used to
verify purity of purge when welding titanium. The old school BIC lighter
won’t cut it. Can I tell you a secret? It never did. Even on stainless steel 4
% oxygen would sugar a weld root and would still blow out a BIC lighter.

Tip for building a Titanium Glove box Welding

Chamber...Dont! Buy a blast cabinet and convert it.
Why not build it yourself?because by the time you buy the metal, bend it, weld it
, buy the gloves and fit in the plexiglass, you can spend a ton of money and
time.

Why not just buy a blaster cabinet from Northern tool or Harbor Freight
and be way ahead of the game.

all you need then is a check valve for the top and a few other
modifications like a shielding gas diffuser and a grounding tab and you
are good to go
You only get one shot with titanium and since you often have to use oversize
homemade or non standard cups/nozzles to get adequate shielding, you better
check everything out first to make sure your shielding works. A titanium disc like
the one shown here comes in really handy whether you weld in a chamber or
outside with oversize cups and trailing shields.

In fact it’s an excellent way to make sure your shielding gas coming out
of the cup is good no matter what kind of metal you are welding. You just
puddle a small area for a few seconds and then terminate the arc and
hold the torch still. If you get any discoloration other than slight straw,
you may not have good enough argon shielding to weld titanium or
anything else. I recommend carrying one of these titanium weld test coins
on your key chain. Along with being handy, Chicks dig it.What's cooler
than welding titanium anyway???