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Welding deposition rate calculator
Enter the wire diameter, the feed speed the machine reads, the alloy density, the deposition efficiency of the consumable and the arc-on time of the cell, and read three separate rates: what melted, what stayed in the joint, and what a real working hour produced.
Add a travel speed and the tool also returns the consumable used per metre of weld — the figure a purchase order actually needs.
One cylinder of wire, three honest rates
Wire area A = π · d² / 4
Melting rate = A · WFS · ρ — a 1.2 mm steel wire at 8 m/min gives 4.26 kg/h
Deposition rate = melting rate × deposition efficiency
Per working hour = deposition rate × arc-on time
d = wire diameter in mm · WFS = wire feed speed in m/min · ρ = density in g/cm³
The first line is geometry and cannot be argued with. The two factors after it are where estimates usually go wrong: deposition efficiency belongs to the consumable, arc-on time belongs to the organisation, and neither is a constant that can be assumed. Both default to 100 % here precisely so that an unfilled field cannot flatter the result.
How to calculate a welding deposition rate
Two measurements off the machine, two off the shop floor.
- Enter the wire diameter and feed speed. Diameter in mm, feed speed in m/min as the wire feeder reads it. Both come straight off the machine, and the area term means diameter matters as its square.
- Set the density for the alloy. The default 7.85 g/cm³ is carbon and low-alloy steel. Aluminium is roughly a third of that, so leaving it at steel overstates an aluminium job by nearly three times.
- Enter the deposition efficiency. The share of melted wire that stays in the joint, from the consumable datasheet or from weighing a test coupon before and after. The default of 100 % deliberately claims no losses until you supply the figure.
- Enter the arc-on time. The share of a working hour the arc actually burns. This is the number that turns a machine capability into a production figure, and it is usually the one that decides the quotation.
- Add a travel speed for consumable per metre. Optional. It converts the rate into kilograms of wire per metre of finished weld, which is what a purchase order needs.
- Diameter enters as its square. Moving from 1.0 mm to 1.2 mm wire at the same feed speed raises the melting rate by 44 %, not by 20 %. It also changes the current the arc draws, so the two are never independent.
- Deposition efficiency is a datasheet value or a weighed coupon. Solid wire under shielding gas keeps nearly all of what it melts; flux-cored gives up a real share to slag, and covered electrodes also lose the stub. Take the number from the consumable rather than from memory.
- Arc-on time is where the money is. A cell at 5 kg per arc hour and a third arc-on time produces less than a cell at 3.5 kg and two thirds. Automation earns most of its return here, not in a higher feed speed.
- Productivity and metallurgy pull against each other. More wire per unit length usually means more energy per unit length. Check the consequence with the heat input calculator and the t8/5 cooling time calculator before committing to a rate — the heat input guide covers what the WPS will allow.
- Measured beats assumed. WeldTrace records the wire feed speed and arc-on time the cell really ran, which is the input this calculation deserves.
For raising deposition without raising heat input, read cold wire feeding and thermal monitoring.
Questions engineers ask about this calculation
How do you calculate deposition rate from wire feed speed?
Treat the wire as a cylinder. Its cross-section is π × d² / 4, so the mass melted per unit time is that area multiplied by the wire feed speed and by the density. In shop units, a 1.2 mm solid steel wire at 8 m/min melts 4.26 kg per hour. Multiplying by the deposition efficiency gives what actually stays in the joint, and multiplying again by the arc-on time gives what a working hour on the shop floor really produces.
What is the difference between melting rate and deposition rate?
Melting rate is all the wire that passed through the arc. Deposition rate is the part of it that ended up in the joint. The gap is spatter, slag, fume and — on stick electrodes — the stub thrown away, and it is a property of the consumable and the transfer mode rather than of the machine. Quoting a melting rate as a deposition rate overstates output by whatever that loss is, which on flux-cored wire is a material fraction.
Why is arc-on time the number that decides the real output?
Because it is usually the smallest factor in the chain and the one nobody measures. A hand-held process spends most of the hour on fit-up, tacking, slag removal, repositioning and waiting, so a torch that deposits 5 kg per arc hour may put down well under 2 kg per working hour. Doubling the wire feed speed is a parameter change with metallurgical consequences; doubling arc-on time is an organisational change with none, and it is almost always the cheaper of the two.
How much consumable does a metre of weld need?
Deposition rate divided by travel speed, once both are in the same time base: at 4.0 kg per arc hour and 400 mm/min the arc covers 24 metres in that hour, so the weld takes about 0.17 kg per metre. Enter a travel speed above and the tool returns that figure. It is the honest basis for a consumable order, because it is tied to the parameters that will actually be run rather than to a joint volume computed from the drawing.
Deposition targets are met on paper. Arcs are audited on data.
WeldTrace records current, voltage and wire feed speed at 25 kHz on every pass, so arc-on time and actual feed speed stop being estimates on a productivity spreadsheet and become a measured record per weld, per shift and per cell.
