How to choose welding wire for mold repair

1、 Stainless steel welding wire

Advantages: Low price.

Disadvantages: Low weld hardness, obvious weld spots, and no quality guarantee.

Purpose: Mainly used for laser welding mold training, teaching, and practice.

2、 Die base metal wire drawing or argon welding wire

Disadvantages: The melting property is average, and it is prone to poor welding quality such as welding spots, sand holes, cracks, etc.

(The reason is that after high-energy laser melting and natural cooling solidification, the metallographic structure of the welding position of this type of welding wire is difficult to maintain inconsistency with the metallographic structure of the mold base material.)

Purpose: Used for laser repair of ordinary molds with low quality requirements.

3、 Laser welding mold special welding wire (laser welding wire)

Advantages: Good melting ability, less prone to poor welding quality such as welding spots, sand holes, cracks, etc.

(This type of welding wire contains multiple alloy components. After laser high-energy melting and natural cooling solidification, the metallographic structure of the welding position is consistent with the gold structure of the mold base material to achieve the performance of the mold base material.)

Disadvantages: expensive price, few brands. (Currently, there are only a few manufacturers in Germany, and only three to five manufacturers)

Purpose: Used for repairing precision molds with high welding quality requirements.

Laser welding wire produced in Germany can also be divided into two categories: one is laser welding wire produced based on argon electrode technology, which is strictly not suitable for use in laser welding molds; Another type is specialized laser welding wire developed specifically for laser welding (such as German brands DSI, Quada, and Improbond laser welding wire).