SAW · Carbon steel
EL12
The leanest of the common submerged arc wires, usually paired with an active flux that supplies alloy back into the deposit on fast single-pass work.
What the designation means
Point at any character to see what it claims. The classification is a sentence written in fields, not a product name.
- EElectrode, the bare wire that carries current beneath the flux.
- LLow manganese content, the leanest of the three manganese classes used for submerged arc wire.
- 12The nominal carbon content in hundredths of a percent, so roughly 0.12 percent carbon.
At a glance
- Process
- SAW
- Family
- Carbon steel
- Positions
- Flat groove welds and horizontal fillets only
- Polarity
- DCEP or DCEN for single wire work, with AC used on multi-wire and tandem arcs
- Shielding
- None; a granular submerged arc flux covers the arc, and the wire is classified together with the flux it runs with
- Minimum tensile
- -
Typical uses
- High speed single-pass fillet and lap welds on light plate
- Sheet and thin plate seam welding on automated equipment
- Applications where an active flux supplies the manganese and silicon
How it runs
- Lean chemistry that relies on the flux to supply alloying elements
- Best suited to single-pass welds rather than heavy multipass buildup
- High travel speed capability on thin material
- Deposit properties change significantly with the flux selected
Storage and handling
Keep coils covered and dry; the paired flux is the moisture sensitive half of the system and needs heated storage.
Compare with
SAWEM12KThe most widely used submerged arc wire, whose medium manganese and silicon killed chemistry make it forgiving on plate that is not perfectly clean.SAWEH14The high manganese submerged arc wire, chosen with a neutral flux for multipass welds where the deposit has to reach higher strength and better toughness.SMAWE6022A high-speed production rod for single-pass lap and fillet welds on sheet and light plate, laying a wide flat bead at travel speeds a general purpose rod cannot match.