Three basic system forms of wire feeder

There are three basic forms of wire feeder: "push" system, "pull" system, and "push pull" system.

As the name suggests, in the propulsion system, the welding wire is fed into the driving roller and pushed towards the welding torch along the guide tube. The flexibility of aluminum wire means that it will bend and get stuck in the conduit, resulting in irregular feeding of welding wire at the welding gun. In special cases, entangled "bird's nests" may appear at the wire feeding device. This type of wire feeder is usually limited to a small welding wire diameter of 1.6mm, and the length of the wire feeder conduit is limited to 3.5m.

The pulling system uses a set of steel wire coils in the cutting torch handle to pull the steel wire out of the steel wire drum. This arrangement increases the weight of the cutting torch without increasing the feeding distance. Although improving the consistency of wire feeding and allowing the use of welding wires with diameters as low as 0.8mm, it is still limited to around 3.5m.

The push-pull system is a combination of the two systems mentioned above, with a set of driving rollers in the welding wire feeder and cutting torch, which can feed small diameter wires into the winding drum with a length of 15m.