ABSTRACT
Gas shielded arc welding is the most common type of welding in the vehicle repair industry, and as with the other skills, it needs practice. There are three different types of gas shielded arc welding: tungsten inert gas (TIG), metal inert gas (MIG), and metal active gas (MAG). In TIG welding, oxidation of the non-consumable tungsten electrode must be prevented. For these reasons most welding shielding gases are based on the inert gases argon and helium. The development of the MIG/MAG processes is in some ways a logical progression from the manual metal arc and TIG processes. An advantage of MIG/MAG welding is the ability of the process to be adopted for single-side spot welding applications, either semi or fully automatically. The MIG/MAG welding process and its effectiveness may be measured by its ability to produce joints of acceptable quality.
