Patent ID: 8704135

Claim:
A welding system for performing a short arc welding process between an advancing wire electrode and a workpiece where said electrode has an end facing said workpiece, said system comprising: a power source with a controller for creating a current pulse introducing energy into said end of said electrode to melt said end and a low current quiescent metal transfer section following the end of said current pulse during which said melted electrode short circuits against said workpiece; a timer for measuring an actual time between the end of said current pulse and the beginning of said short circuit; a device for setting a desired time from an end of said current pulse to a beginning of said short circuit; a circuit for creating a corrective signal based upon a difference between said actual time and said desired time; and a circuit responsive to said corrective signal for controlling a given parameter of said current pulse, wherein said advancing wire electrode is a self-shielded flux cored arc welding (FCAW-S) wire having an alloy/flux system in a core of said welding wire, said alloy/flux system comprising: from about 35 to about 55% barium fluoride; from about 2 to about 12% lithium fluoride; from about 0 to about 15% lithium oxide; from about 0 to about 15% of barium oxide; and from about 5 to about 20% iron oxide.