Slope/Pulse Tig Functions

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I was wondering what the slope function does on my TIG welder.  Also, I know the what pulse is but I was wondering exactly what it does as well if I were to enable it.I took welding in college and asked my teacher when we did a tig class but he said "it's advanced features you don't need to mess with until you get more experienced".  Well many years later and have been working full time as a welder I decided to buy a tig welder.  So me and my buddy have been practicing for our stainless steel pipe GTAW welding test and are now getting pretty good and I didn't mess with the two functions but was wondering what actually happens when they are adjusted.  Both of our employers offered to pay for us to get certified in gtaw pipe welding so we are taking advantage of it.
Reply:This function is for using only the start switch.  Set the time and the beginning amps.  Once you hit the start switch, it will initate the arc, then ramp up to the selected amps.  You then weld until done.  If you have down slope, once you hit the start switch agin, it will ramp down to crater current in the amount of time selected.  It would work more for doing the same job over and over with out the foot pedal.Do a search for pulse, there are a bunch of topics on that one.Hope this helps.DavidReal world weldin.  When I grow up I want to be a tig weldor.
Reply:The pulse can be beneficial in running open roots with pipe or other heat sensitive materials, but I wouldn't advise it as common practice.  In fact, I just took another AWS cert test, and the WPS specified no pulsing.