Building a hovercraft out of aluminum and angle iron

[Monte55]

Now that everyone has totally gone off subject............what about the hovercraft?

[JimDon]

Plasma-MIG Welding

"A welding process developed by the Philips company in Holland in 1971 is named plasma-MIG welding. It is a combination of gas metal arc welding and plasma acrc welding. A plasma torch is modified by placing the tungsten electrode slightly to one side of the center of the nozzle orifice. A contact tip is inserted in the torch on the centerline, and a continuous electrode wire is fed through the nozzle orifice along with the plasma gas. The gas metal arc consumable electrode and the arc are contained within the plasma column. Separate power supplies are used -- one for the plasma and one for the electrode wire. Under certain conditions the gas metal arc rotates within the plasma. Extremely high temperatures are attained, resulting in high deposition rates.

"The torch is larger than a standard plasma torch and more complex. It is normal to move the work under a fixed torch. One major application for the process is cladding of steel with dissimilar material such as stainless steel. This process has not attained sufficient industrial use."

Footnoted from page 189 of "Modern Welding Technology," Sixth Edition by Howard B. Cary and Scott C. Helzer, C -- 2005
Also, according to the publication there are a host of other oddball welding processes including "Hot Pressure Welding," "Roll Welding," "Ultrasonic Welding," "Percussion Welding," "Ion Beam Welding," "Solar Energy Welding," "Spot-Adhesive Welding," and "Ultra Pulse Welding," PPS, 188, 189, 190 and 191 from same.
Happy Reading,
Jim Don