Iron Powder for Welding

Higher productivity, better welding characteristics and improved weld metal quality all add up to increased profitability for the user. This is why the welding industry has switched to metal powder – both as a coating component for coated welding electrodes and as an important constituent in cored wires.

Powders are available for all types of coated welding electrodes as well as flux-cored and metal-cored wires.

In spite of severe competition from other welding processes, manual metal arc welding with coated electrodes is still one of the most important welding methods worldwide.

With skilful electrode design, the addition of our sponge iron powder will not only improve the yield and efficiency of the electrode… but also other welding properties, like improved slag removal, reduced spatter and better re-striking.

The increasing demand for flux-cored and metal-cored wires has placed new requirements on the iron powder used in the welding industry.

Whether for coated electrodes or cored wires, our sponge iron powders offer high and uniform quality.

Features and Benefits

Iron powder has for a long time been one of the most important and frequently used raw materials in the production of coated welding electrodes. In recent years, it has also become a popular raw material for cored wires.

Additions of iron powder in electrode coatings can be anything from a few per cent up to more than 60%. In some metal-cored wires, iron powder can account for up to 80% of the core material.

Using iron powder as an additive for electrode coatings or cored wires has several advantages including higher efficiency as well as improved welding characteristics and weld metal quality.

In low and high-alloyed electrodes, iron powder is partly or entirely replaced by different metal and ferroalloy powders.

Product Examples

All of our standard welding powders are based on sponge iron, well known for its consistency and low level of impurities. Whether used for coated welding electrodes or cored wires, our sponge iron powders offer high and uniform quality, giving advantages both to producers and end users of welding consumables.

We provide a complete range of welding powders, with varied particle size, particle shape and chemical composition. Among the standard welding grades are fine powders suitable for coated electrodes with small additions of iron powder and for all types of cored wires.

There are also coarse iron powders with both low and medium apparent density, frequently used for low-hydrogen electrodes corresponding to AWS E7018.

For coated high-efficiency electrodes such as the rutile AWS E7024, the basic AWS E7028 and the acid AWS E7027, all characterized by the large amount of iron powder in the coating, we offer a range of coarse high apparent density powders.

For production of low and high-alloyed electrodes, Höganäs also provides FeCr, FeMo and pure Molybdenum.