In response to recent insights, BOC explores how smarter gas blends, filler materials and power sources are redefining welding fume control.
In the ever-evolving landscape of occupational health and safety, welding fume exposure has drawn attention. Recent insights from BOC’s Hierarchy of Control for Welding Fume Reduction and Todescato et al.’s 2025 comparative study of low-Mn seamless flux and metal cored wires provide a compelling case for rethinking fume mitigation – not just through PPE and ventilation, but by targeting the source itself.
At the top of the well-known Hierarchy of Controls, elimination remains the ideal, but impractical in most welding contexts. This positions substitution as a potent realistic strategy. In practice, this means deploying optimised shielding gases and filler materials that lower fume emission rates (FER).
One example is BOC’s Argoshield 10, a gas blend with reduced CO₂ content, which helps spread arc heat more evenly across the filler tip, thus reducing localised overheating and consequent metal vapour generation. This shielding gas has also been demonstrated to reduce FER for gas metal arc welding (GMAW), flux cored arc welding (FCAW) and metal cored arc welding (MCAW).
Take Figure 1, extracted from BOC’s guide, showing the FER reduction when combining Argoshield 10 with Diamond Spark Guard 420 RC FCAW wire from voestalpine Bohler Welding Group. The pairing achieves up to 75 per cent FER reduction (measured under controlled laboratory conditions) compared to conventional CO₂ – a measurable step-change in safety.
Complementing this, Todescato et al. (2025) confirms that low-Mn seamless cored wires, such as the GUARD range from the voestalpine Bohler Welding Group, reduce manganese exposure – an area of rising concern due to links with neurological disorders. The study reports a 27–45 per cent reduction in Mn emissions using newly developed wires in controlled arc environments.
When Argoshield 10 is combined with modern power sources that enable controlled metal transfer processes – like EWM’s forceArc puls or coldArc puls – the benefits of shielding gas substitution multiply for GMAW. The integration of advanced transfer modes reduces heat input, limits spatter and further suppresses fume generation at the source for solid wire.
While PPE such as the Speedglas, Weldclass or CIGWELD’s Cyclone PAPR systems remain vital for protecting the welder, relying on them as a primary control is reactionary. A proactive strategy requires upstream intervention – through smarter consumables and equipment selection that lower the fumes in the first place. Lowering fume emissions at source in turn lowers the level of exposure for anyone finding themselves in the welding environment.
Also, the lowering of fume emitted at the source has a knock-on benefit of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of technical/engineering solutions in the form of fume extraction equipment such as fume hoods and on-gun fume extraction solutions.
In the current regulatory and social climate, organisations serious about welder and welder co-worker safety should move beyond the status quo. The tools and evidence are already in hand. Welding fume control, at its most effective, starts not with extraction but with intelligent substitution.
Disclaimer: This document has been provided for informational and reference purposes only. Absolutely no guarantee of the suitability of the described processes or procedures for the reader or employer is offered. It is the user’s responsibility to check the required standards for compliance or regulations on local as well as on a national basis.
