Advantages Of MIG Welding
1.MIG welding is fast. That’s mainly due to the continuously-fed electrode wire and the way it reduces the amount of stopping and starting during welding jobs.
2.It’s suitable for joining many different metals and metal thicknesses too. A characteristically good weld bead and the ability to vary weld penetration by changing the amount of current makes achieving strong, smooth welds remarkably easy.
3.All-position welding capability: MIG welding handles horizontal, vertical or flat welding with confidence.
4.There’s minimal clean-up requirement. Only TIG welding is cleaner; compared to traditional stick welding, MIG doesn’t use flux, or create extensive, messy weld spatter and slag.
5.High-deposition MIG welding enables ‘long weld passes’ so you can deposit more metal with each pass and use fewer passes to weld a large joint. The result? Faster welding and increased productivity.
6.Avoidance of waste: unlike stick welding, which typically wastes part of each electrode (electrode stub loss), continuously-fed wire means you use all your electrode during MIG welding.
7.MIG welding is easy to learn, mainly thanks to the fact that several parts of the process are automated.
Disadvantages Of MIG Welding:
1.MIG welding needs a bit more initial investment in equipment compared to traditional stick welding. However, the specification, capability and reliability of today’s best MIG welding machines is impressive. For serious professional or hobby welders, modern machines offer great value for money.
2.Higher maintenance of MIG welding equipment? With modern, reliable machines (and our free loan machines), this argument needn’t apply.
3.MIG welding can only be used on thin to medium-thick metals (typically between 0.6mm and 14mm).
4.There’s an argument that MIG welding is less portable than other welding processes that don’t require an external gas source. This may be true sometimes, but compact modern MIG welders often redress the balance. For lots of professional and amateur welding, MIG is the preferred method.
5.Compared to tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, MIG welding may give less controlled welds under some circumstances.
6.Outdoor MIG welding can be more difficult because of the effect of wind on the shielding gas. Then again, this can often be solved with higher gas pressure, portable wind breaks or even gasless wire...
So there you have them, the main pros and cons of MIG welding. As you can see, modern MIG welding equipment and thoughtful customer service details (such as free loan machines) make some of the traditional ‘disadvantages’ much less of an issue…