Essential Pipe Welding Tools Every Professional Should Have

Welding, including pipefitting, involves much more complex and often dangerous work than non-professionals realize. There’s so much more to it than the cliché blowtorch depicted on television and in cartoons. If you’re considering a serious career in welding, start with this list of essential pipe welding equipment every professional should have.

Auto-Darkening Welding Helmet

You already know that protecting your head, face, and eyes from sparks, burns, and ultraviolet or infrared lights is essential. Select an auto-darkening helmet that will allow you to see what you’re working on clearly, but that also adjusts to protect your eyes from bright light by physically shielding your head and face from flares, heat, sparks, and debris.

Gloves

The type of welding system you use may determine the kind of protective gloves you’ll need. When performing MIG (metal inert gas) welding, pros use thicker gloves to protect their hands from intense heat. As TIG (tungsten inert gas) welding is more precise, it requires thinner gloves to allow for maneuverability. Either way, you need gloves to protect your hands from heat and molten metal.

Alignment Clamps

Welding joins pieces together. To do that, something has to hold the pieces in place while the welder is fusing them together. Welding clamps secure pieces of pipe or other workpieces in place so welders can concentrate on crafting a quality weld.

Non-Sparking Tools

Welders who work in environments that contain flammable or explosive substances or gases must use extreme caution, and that includes using non-sparking tools. These may create a few sparks, but they won’t get hot enough to ignite flammable materials.

Non-sparking tools don’t contain iron, so they are also non-magnetic. That makes them useful for working on magnetic machines like MRI machines or other equipment that uses magnetism in its operation.

Grinder

A precision electrode grinder helps correct minor imperfections in welds and makes precise adjustments to pipe lengths. A good grinder is among the essential pipe welding equipment every professional should have.

This is far from a comprehensive list of pipe welding equipment a professional welder may need. We haven’t even discussed pipe purging equipment, which is essential for creating a safe welding environment in facilities where flammable gasses may be present inside pipes. If you have questions about welding, pipe purging, non-sparking, or pipe fitting tools or equipment, contact us to discuss your options.