Individual Welding and Stick Electrodes for Your Application

Almost all common welding consumables can be individually manufactured: stick electrodes, solid wires, flux-cored wires and welding powders. Individual manufacturing encompasses both adaptations of existing formulations and complete new developments for specific materials, welding processes or operating conditions.

Typical custom items are chrome-free or slag-free hard overlay electrodes for recycling and wear protection applications.

At capilla the focus is on custom manufacture of stick electrodes, supplemented by individually developed welding wires, flux-cored wires and welding powders to customer specification.

Custom manufacture of welding electrodes is worthwhile when standard products do not meet the requirements. Typical triggers are difficult-to-weld materials such as tool steel or cast iron, high wear loads, specific welding positions or regulatory requirements in sectors such as rail, construction or energy.

Also when proven stick electrodes disappear from the market or certain products are discontinued, individual manufacture is often economically sensible to maintain the accustomed welding quality.

capilla accompanies industrial users from requirements analysis through to series delivery and develops welding electrodes specifically to customer specification.

Yes, discontinued welding electrodes can be reverse-engineered as replacements. Existing stick electrodes are analysed using samples or existing data. Composition, drying behaviour and other properties are examined and reconstructed in the laboratory.

Typical triggers for reverse engineering are products no longer available from suppliers, discontinued alloys or changed production processes. Additional requirements can be adapted on request, such as changed materials or new standard requirements.

At capilla, analysis and reconstruction is carried out in the in-house capiLab laboratory. This preserves the accustomed quality and allows further optimisation as required.

Individually manufactured welding electrodes are economically feasible even in small quantities. The exact minimum quantity depends on the coating type, core wire dimension and complexity of the formulation.

Common custom items can be produced economically from as little as a few hundred kilograms. For particularly complex formulations or rare alloys, the economic threshold is correspondingly higher. Less decisive than the quantity itself is the process adaptation of the electrode formulation – from raw material blending through the electrode press to drying and sintering.

capilla manufactures both prototypes and small batches as well as ongoing series supply. Even smaller batch sizes can be realised without compromise on quality or delivery reliability.

Rutile- and basic-coated stick electrodes differ primarily in welding behaviour, material quality and application area. Rutile-coated welding electrodes offer a stable arc, good ignition and re-ignition properties and a clean weld appearance with easily removable slag. They are suitable for direct and alternating current and generally require no re-drying.

However, they are only suitable to a limited extent for thick-walled or highly stressed components because the weld metal can have a higher hydrogen content. Basic-coated welding electrodes, on the other hand, are characterised by very low hydrogen content, high toughness and crack resistance. They are particularly suitable for safety-critical applications, greater material thicknesses and lower temperatures.

In practice, rutile-coated stick electrodes are preferred for general welding work and visible welds, while basic-coated stick electrodes are used for safety-critical applications, thick-walled components and low-temperature applications.

capilla manufactures rutile- and basic-coated welding electrodes both as standard and as custom items, including mixed types such as RB for root and pipe welding.

Solid wire and flux-cored wire differ in their structural design and possible applications. A solid wire consists of a continuously homogeneous wire material without any fill. It is typically used in the MIG/MAG process under shielding gas and is well suited to clean, smooth welds in thin to medium wall thicknesses.

A flux-cored wire, on the other hand, is a tubular wire with a powder fill inside. This fill can contain alloying elements, slag formers or shielding gas components and takes on additional tasks in the welding process. Flux-cored wires allow higher deposition rates, are particularly suitable for hard overlay welding, wear protection and applications with high mechanical requirements, and can be processed with or without shielding gas depending on the type.

In practice, solid wires are used predominantly in general steel processing and bodywork construction, flux-cored wires in wear protection applications, hard overlay and weld seam processing.

capilla manufactures both solid wires and flux-cored wires as custom items to customer specification. Composition, fill and mechanical properties are precisely matched to the respective application.

For difficult-to-weld materials such as tool steel or cast iron, basic-coated welding electrodes and specially alloyed stick electrodes matched to the respective base material are particularly suitable. Tool steel generally requires welding electrodes with high-alloy core wires and controlled hydrogen content to prevent hardening cracks.

For cast iron, nickel-base welding electrodes are usually used; they can be welded cold and do not additionally stress the brittle cast microstructure. Decisive beyond the material group is also the application environment. Repair welding, joint welds or overlay welding each require different welding electrodes for tool steel or cast iron. Pre- and post-heat temperatures are decisive for a crack-free result in both cases.

capilla manufactures welding electrodes for tool steel, cast iron and other difficult-to-weld materials as custom items, including high-alloyed and low-alloyed variants to customer specification.

For wear protection to DIN EN 14700, hard overlay electrodes are used whose weld metal is matched to specific types of wear. The standard DIN EN 14700 classifies welding consumables for hard overlay welding by chemical composition and hardness of the weld metal and assigns them to typical loads such as abrasion, impact, pressure or thermal stress.

Depending on the application, different hard overlay electrodes are used – chromium-bearing welding electrodes for severe abrasion from minerals, tools or scrap, hard overlay electrodes for mixed wear or abrasion-resistant weld metals for high temperature resistance. Chrome-free and slag-free hard overlay electrodes are also part of our portfolio, for example for recycling applications or to reduce reworking.

capilla manufactures welding electrodes to DIN EN 14700 as individual custom items, including chrome-free and slag-free variants for clean, fast hard overlay layers even in out-of-position welding.

For repair and maintenance welding, coated stick electrodes are particularly suitable as they can be used flexibly on site and require no complex equipment. In practice, different stick electrodes are used depending on the base material and weld type: basic-coated welding electrodes for safety-critical joint welds with high toughness, rutile-coated stick electrodes for general repairs on unalloyed steels, and special types based on nickel or mixed compositions for repairs on cast iron or dissimilar joints.

For wear repairs, such as on crushing tools, conveying equipment or grinding systems, hard overlay electrodes to DIN EN 14700 are used. Special variants such as gouging electrodes for removing defective areas or cutting electrodes are also typical equipment in the repair and maintenance sector.

capilla develops and manufactures stick electrodes for repair and maintenance welding as custom items, as well as hard overlay, gouging and cutting electrodes for demanding applications.

The development and production of an individual welding electrode follows a defined sequence in several phases. It begins with requirements analysis: material, welding process, welding position, mechanical requirements and where applicable relevant standards such as DIN EN ISO 2560 or DIN EN 14700 are clarified. If an existing stick electrode is available as a reference, a laboratory analysis follows in which composition and properties are evaluated.

On this basis, the formulation for coating and core wire is developed or adapted. Sample production and welding trials follow to test arc behaviour, slag control, weld appearance and mechanical values. After the formulation has been approved, series production begins: from powder blending through the electrode press to drying, sintering and moisture-protected packaging. Documented quality controls accompany the entire process from raw material inspection through to delivery.

At capilla, development takes place in the in-house capiLab laboratory, including qualification to EN 13479:2017, VdTÜV 1153, ISO 9001 and the requirements of certifying bodies such as Deutsche Bahn.