Abstract: The invention relates to a cold metal transfer welding process, in which the welding process is defined by the cyclic alternation of an arc phase and a short-circuit phase. According to the invention, during an arc phase, a welding rod is displaced towards the workpiece until it makes contact with the latter and during the short-circuit phase the welding rod displacement is reversed and the welding rod is then moved away from the workpiece. The welding current and/or the welding voltage are controlled during the arc phase in such a way that the welding rod melts, forming a droplet and that during the short-circuit phase a breaking of the short-circuit is suppressed by means of the welding current. The invention also relates to a welding installation for carrying out the welding method. The aim of the invention is to achieve optimal welding results using the smallest possible number of settings.

Abstract: The invention relates to a device for buffering a welding wire, whereby a wire buffer, in particular a wire buffer magazine is arranged between a wire advance device and a further wire advance device which is preferably arranged in the vicinity of a welding torch, or in the welding torch and the welding wire is run between the two wire advance devices in a wire core. According to the invention, a simple and compact a buffer device as possible and an improvement in the dynamic behaviour of the wire supply can be achieved, whereby the wire core is attached or fixed at one end and the other end thereof is free to move and the wire core with the welding wire is arranged such as to be free to move within a wire guide tube with a substantially larger cross-section than the outer diameter of the wire core and the buffer volume of the wire buffer magazine is defined by the cross-section and the length of the substantially larger wire guide tube.

Abstract: In a welding torch including a torch housing (28) and, preferably, a tube bend (29) capable of being fastened thereto, wherein a drive unit (30) for feeding a welding wire (13) is arranged in the torch housing (29) and the drive unit (30) is formed by at least one pair of rollers, in particular a drive roller (31) and a pressure roller (32), as well as a drive motor, a part of the torch housing (28) is designed as a component of the drive unit (30). A rotor (45), in particular a motor shaft (46), of the drive motor (33) is fastened to the torch housing (28) via a bearing, in particular via bearings (43, 44), to stabilize and position the rotor (45).