Consider Process Costs Not Item Costs
The great temptation is to go straight to the bottom line, and compare consumables and equipment prices directly. However, decisions based solely on this limited amount of information will lead to ill informed choices, and generally lead to greater rather than smaller overall costs.

Corewire's philosophy is to adopt a more holistic view, taking into account all aspects and processes of the job. Looking at the whole job in this way reveals the true savings to be made with Corewire consumables compared with other hardfacing and cladding products.

As an example of this process, consider the comparative costing below, developed for cladding continuous casting rollers. Three popular processes have been used, Weldclad's submerged arc process plus an open arc system both with and without a final heat treatment. The costs have been determined in relation to the price of the Weldclad consumable, and are given as a percentage. So, for example if the cost of flux is a third that of the welding wire, the wire will appear as 100% and the flux as 33%.