TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 242/1984
By R L Jones and J Moreton
Background
The welding fume emission rates for a number of different flux-cored, metal-cored and solid wire consumables for the arc welding of C-Mn steels have been measured using the Swedish Fume Box technique. A combination of analytical techniques has been used to quantify the particulate fume constituents. The results obtained for the limited number of consumables investigated suggests that different types of cored and solid wire can be ranked in the following order of increasing fume emission rate: metal-cored and solid gas-shielded wires, basic gas-shielded flux-cored wires, rutile gas-shielded flux-cored wires and self-shielded flux-cored wires. Some degree of control over welding fume emission can be effected by choice of consumable, welding conditions and, where appropriate, control of shielding gas composition. The presence of soluble barium in the fume from two of the self-shielded flux-cored wires constitutes a potential occupational hygiene problem and stringent fume removal and ventilation measures are recommended when using these wires. A comparison is made with the typical fume emission rates encountered with the manual metal arc (MMA) process for similar applications.