Sintering workshop where seam-welding wheels are produced

Application

Seam Welding Electrode Wheels

Wheels that hold profile through the whole coil run

Overview

Why tungsten-copper here

Seam welding is a continuous process: the wheel never stops conducting, so heat and mechanical load build up over the entire coil or drum run. Tungsten-copper earns its place here because it resists arc erosion and mushrooming far longer than chromium-copper or beryllium-copper wheels — especially on galvanized and coated steels, where zinc pickup shortens the life of softer alloys.

Typical users: automotive fuel-tank, exhaust and radiator lines; steel drum and can making; tube and strip mills. Wheels are consumed on a wear cycle and reordered by diameter and profile — which is why we machine every wheel to drawing, with bore H7 and runout 0.02 mm, so replacements drop straight onto your existing shafts.

Galvanized & coated steels

W/Cu resists zinc pickup and sticking far better than Cr-Cu wheels on coated strip.
Profile stability

Flat, single/double bevel, R profile and knurled edges machined to drawing — the profile holds through the wear cycle.
Two grades by weld schedule

W/Cu 75/25 for maximum wear life; W/Cu 70/30 when the schedule needs more current (≈ 42% IACS).
Fast reorder

Standard sizes ship in 10–14 days with no MOQ — keep one spare wheel on the shelf instead of ten.

In depth

Application notes

Matching the wheel to the machine

Seam wheels are consumed parts, and the machines that run them are long-lived: longitudinal and transverse seamers, drum and can-body lines, tube mills. Your shaft, drive method and arm geometry are fixed capital — the wheel must fit them, not the other way round. That is why every wheel we cut starts from your drawing, or from a measurement of the worn wheel if the drawing is gone.

Drive method matters for profile selection: gear-driven wheels put torsional loads through the bore and keyway, while friction or knurl-driven wheels put them through the face. We cut the keyway and the face profile to match whichever drive your machine uses.

Weld schedule vs alloy choice

The schedule and the alloy are one decision, not two. Higher current schedules (thick stock, coated strip, fast travel) run cooler on the more conductive 70/30 face; high-force, long-campaign schedules hold profile longer on 75/25. If your nugget or seam consistency problem is heat, move conductivity up; if it is geometry drift, move hardness up.

Zinc and other coatings change the calculation: a softer face picks up coating material, glazes, and starts sticking to the strip. This is the single most common reason lines migrate from Cr-Cu or Be-Cu wheels to tungsten copper.

Keeping spare wheels to a minimum

Because replacements are cut to the same drawing every time, you can hold one spare per station instead of a full set. Our standard lead time is 10–14 days with no minimum order, so the reorder trigger is diameter wear — not fear of the supply chain.

For lines that consume wheels weekly, we quote standing schedules: agreed dimensions, agreed profile, shipments on your consumption rhythm with each batch carrying its inspection record.

Supplied from our floor