At present, shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) and gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) are the most commonly used welding processes in the fabrication industries, but because they are manual processes, productivity is limited. There are other processes available to improve welding deposition rate and duty cycle. For welding positions and components where mechanised welding is applicable, submerged arc welding (SAW) is a generally preferred and most productive process. However, for all-positional welding and particularly for fixed pipe or site welding, the ideal high productivity process is tubular flux cored arc welding (FCAW).

This paper describes the potential productivity benefits of using FCAW for manufacturing industries and presents joint completion rates and time savings in comparison to other arc welding processes. FCAW is the process in which solid wire is replaced by a flux cored electrode wire that is called as tubular wire.

This process is growing in popularity. Some FCAW still uses CO2 shielding, but use of flux-cored wire alone is increasing.

The FCAW is a process in which coalescence is produced by heating with an electric arc between a continuous tubular consumable electrode and the work. The electrode is flux cored that is the flux is contained with in the electrode which is hollow. In addition to flux, minerals and ferro-alloys in the core can provide additional protection and composition control. The flux cored electrode is coiled and supplied to the arc as a continuous wire.