Contractor Gains Quality and Productivity Benefits with Fabshield® XLR-8 Wire
Jolson Welding (Wheatland, Calif.) shares the benefits of welding with Fabshield® XLR-8 self-shielded flux-cored wire. Since using the wire, the company has gained greater deposition rates, higher quality and better impact properties on its structural, pile and pipe welding applications.
Video Transcript
We use a Hobart wire, Hobart XLR-8 wire, .072 diameter, and it’s a real high deposition welding wire and it’s a real clean welding wire. Very seldom do we have any slag inclusions or porosity or anything like that. It has really high charpy properties and Caltrans likes that.
The Hobart wire you can be off on your wire speed or your temperature way up, and your wire speed way low, and you still won’t get wagging tracks or porosity, it just welds all the time.
Well, being a pile driver is usually, we’re either splicing out in the field where they’ve already driven a can into the ground so most of our weldings horizontal and vertical up, it does it all. I go any which way with Hobart XLR-8 up down sideways crooked it does it all.
The XLR-8 is a great all-position wire. You can set your wire speed and your voltage in the area for running a vertical up. You can take it and run an overhead, or then I can even run a flat with it. I mean, I have one setting, I’ll do them all.
What I really like about the XLR-8 wire is: number one the slag removal it falls off you don’t have to beat it off you don’t have to grind it off.
Ease of cleanup on the XLR-8 is I mean bar none the easiest stuff to remove it falls off itself, if the slag doesn’t come off easy and you don’t get it out of there you will trap it in there and that will fail a UT or an x-ray and we can’t have that on the stuff we do it just costs too much money to go back and fix it. So having the XLR-8 and the easy slag removal has increased our productivity, put more money in our pockets, and it’s just great wire.
A lot of times, you’ll get a new guy, he’ll be nervous, you know, having his first day out on the job, and we throw a roll of XLR-8 wire in his feeder, and they fall in love with it. Usually, if they’re out of wire Brandon, we don’t work that day huh? We’re just like wait ain’t got no Hobart wire well when’s it coming in let us know we’ll be there.
The Hobart wire you can be off on your wire speed or your temperature way up, and your wire speed way low, and you still won’t get wagging tracks or porosity, it just welds all the time.
Well, being a pile driver is usually, we’re either splicing out in the field where they’ve already driven a can into the ground so most of our weldings horizontal and vertical up, it does it all. I go any which way with Hobart XLR-8 up down sideways crooked it does it all.
The XLR-8 is a great all-position wire. You can set your wire speed and your voltage in the area for running a vertical up. You can take it and run an overhead, or then I can even run a flat with it. I mean, I have one setting, I’ll do them all.
What I really like about the XLR-8 wire is: number one the slag removal it falls off you don’t have to beat it off you don’t have to grind it off.
Ease of cleanup on the XLR-8 is I mean bar none the easiest stuff to remove it falls off itself, if the slag doesn’t come off easy and you don’t get it out of there you will trap it in there and that will fail a UT or an x-ray and we can’t have that on the stuff we do it just costs too much money to go back and fix it. So having the XLR-8 and the easy slag removal has increased our productivity, put more money in our pockets, and it’s just great wire.
A lot of times, you’ll get a new guy, he’ll be nervous, you know, having his first day out on the job, and we throw a roll of XLR-8 wire in his feeder, and they fall in love with it. Usually, if they’re out of wire Brandon, we don’t work that day huh? We’re just like wait ain’t got no Hobart wire well when’s it coming in let us know we’ll be there.