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CK Worldwide Innovations That Have Changed the TIG Industry
Dec 2nd 2021
For more than five decades CK Worldwide has carried out the mission it was founded on: to make TIG welding more efficient.
From lighter-weight torches to cold wire feed automation, CK’s innovative designs have saved welders and fabricators untold hours of labor and production costs. And throughout its 54 years of producing these time and money saving innovations, CK always kept safety at the forefront of its designs.
As the industry leader in product design patents, CK has certainly earned the right to say it sets the standard in TIG welding.
CK’s Top Innovations That Have Changed the TIG Industry
The WF-5 Cold Wire Feeder automates the addition of filler metal with the touch of a button. This machine works independently from your welding machine to provide continuous, clean, filler metal.
The cold wire feeder eliminates the need for cut lengths of wire, which require lots of stops and starts that can lead to weld defects. The advantage of a cold wire feeder is it runs off standard spools of wire eliminating the starts and stops. Multiple settings allow for pulsing or continuous feed at a variety of speeds.
Without slots to weaken or deform the collet, the wedge collet last up to ten times longer than standard copper split collets. Wedge collets also run cooler, create better electrical conductivity, better arc starts and less wander.
A precision angle cut at the head of the collet allows better gripping action of the electrode. This wedges the tungsten directly against the body bypassing the collet and the electrical circuit. This unique design resists twisting and can fit any standard collet body or gas lens.
CK’s Super-Flex Cables are about ten times more flexible than standard cables and increase range of motion, reducing fatigue and improving productivity. Made of lightweight silicon rubber with durable nylon over-braid, Super-Flex Cables stay flexible in harsh weather conditions.
Single gas torch leads are made of neoprene braided rubber, similar to a stiff garden hose. Water cooled leads are traditionally made of vinyl plastic, and they can be stiff until they warm up. In addition, water hoses are color coded: water in is blue, gas in is black, and the water out power cable is red.
- Max-Flo Technology
With Max-Flo Technology, CK literally has the coolest water-cooled torches on the market. The design features water ports inside the torch head that are five times larger than competitors’ torches.
Welders who use these torches will find they use fewer collets too. That’s because CK manufacturers its torch heads out of brass, not copper. They do that because they found that like materials tend to strip out against each other. So by using brass their products don’t strip out against copper collet bodies.
- Fail-Safe Ferrules
Instead of wire ties in the body of its torch heads, CK uses a Fail Safe hose connection, which securely prevents leakage of water or gas. The most important feature of CK’s design is the ferrules are flared at the connecting end. The flare prevents the hose from getting pushed off as the ferrule is tightened down.
Who wouldn’t like to save 40% of their argon? The Gas Saver Kit is a front-end replacement part kit for your TIG torch. It contains a universal collet body, a heat shield, a screen adapter that screws onto the end of the collet body, and a push-on-style nozzle (aluminum or clear Pyrex).
With the Gas Saver, a more focused gas flow is directed to the area being welded. The design uses a series of screens in the front end of the collet body that creates a highly directed flow pattern. The result is increased gas savings and more efficient welding.
The Flex-Loc is a 360-degree variable angle torch head that locks in any position. It’s also interchangeable allowing for different configurations and head sizes.
The Flex-Loc is perfect for all tough-to-weld applications like when you need to get behind something or weld in tight, hard-to-reach areas. It’s also excellent for walking the cup because once set at the preferred angle the head is rigidly locked into position.
Trim-Line torches give you all the amperage of the standard version with less weight and smaller size for better maneuverability and comfort. As an example, using the Trim-Line 26 feels more like a 9.
Super flex cables compliment the Trim-Line torches due to their smaller size, flexibility and versatility compared to standard power cables. Consider Trim-Line where size, weight and duty cycle are important.
With its tiny size and three angled heads there's nowhere the Micro Torch can't reach. Available in gas and water cooled versions, the Micro Torch offers a low-profile and 45, 90 and 180 degree heads.
Founded in Auburn, Washington in 1967, CK Worldwide continues to be a family-owned and operated business. Founders Art Kleppen and Jim Conley started the company in 1967 and sought to improve torch heads by insulating them with silicone rubber. They were safer and lasted longer, and proved to be just the beginning of a long history of industry-changing innovations from CK Worlwide.