Advantages and Disadvantages of Arc Welding:

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Arc Welding having its distinctive merits and applications.

The advantages of arc welding with dc lie in the higher arc stability and the degree to which the work is heated. It is best suited for thinner sheet metal (below 6 mm) and also for welding of non-ferrous metals.

AC welding, due to the absence of ‘arc blow’, is considered superior for production welding involving large size electrodes. AC welding has a number of economical advantages such as given below :

1. As power supply in factories is usually ac so a rotating dc generator or a rectifier is required for dc welding whilst for ac welding only transformer is required which is relatively cheaper in initial cost.
2. Maintenance of a transformer is less difficult and expensive than that of a dc generator.
3. Operating costs of ac equipment are also lower than those of dc equipment.
4. The electric energy consumption per kg of deposited metal in ac welding ranges from 3 to 4 kWh while for dc welding it is as high as 6 to 10 kWh.

One disadvantage of ac welding is the comparatively low power factor (about 0.4 lagging) which can be corrected by the use of capacitors.