What is Welding? Welding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence.

. This is often done by melting the work piece and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material (the weld pool) that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes used in conjunction with heat, or by itself, to produce the weld. This is in contrast with soldering and brazing, which involve melting a lower-melting-point material between the work pieces to form a bond between them, without melting the work piece. Welding is the most economical and efficient way to join metals permanently. Welding cannot be done with all types of metals, as some materials, such as stainless steel, are prone to cracking and distortion when overheated. Alloys are particularly problematic, since it's hard to know the exact chemical composition of the metal. Welding has become highly automatized over the last decade, and the use of welding robots is now commonplace in certain industries, such as the automotive manufacturing plants Nearly everything we use in our daily life is welded or made by equipment that is welded. There are many ways to make a weld and many different kinds of welds. Some processes cause sparks and others do not even require extra heat. Welding has been attempted successfully in unusual conditions, including underwater and in outer space. Underwater welding is widely used in the repair of pipelines and ships, while welding in space is currently under research as a possible way to put together the International Space Station, currently being assembled in outer space. History of Welding With the earliest examples of welding from the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in Europe and the Middle East. Welding was used in the construction of the iron pillar in Delhi, India, erected about 310 AD and weighing 5.4 metric tons. Until the beginnings of the 20th century, welding was done via a process known as forge welding, which consists of heating up the pieces to be fixed together and then hammering them until they amalgamate. With the advent of electricity, welding became easier and faster, and it played an important part of the industry scene during World War I and II. There are different welding processes in use in modern times: Welding was transformed during the 19th century; in 1800, Sir Humphry Davy discovered the electric arc, and advances in arc welding continued with the invention of metal electrodes in the late 1800s by a Russian, Nikolai Slavyanov, and an American, C. L. Coffin, even as carbon arc welding, which used a carbon electrode, gained popularity. Around 1900, A. P. Strohmenger released a coated metal electrode in Britain, which gave a more stable arc, and in 1919, alternating current welding was invented by C. J. Holslag but did not become popular for another decade. The final decades of the 19th century Resistance welding was developed. During the middle of the century, many new welding methods were invented. 1930 saw the release of stud welding, which soon became popular in shipbuilding and construction. Submerged arc welding was invented the same year and continues to be popular today. Gas tungsten arc welding, after decades of development, was finally perfected in 1941, and gas metal arc welding followed in 1948, allowing for fast welding of non-ferrous materials but requiring expensive shielding gases. Shielded metal arc welding was developed during the 1950s, using a flux coated consumable electrode, and it quickly became the most popular metal arc welding process. In 1957, the flux-cored arc welding process debuted, in which the self-shielded wire electrode could be used with automatic

equipment, resulting in greatly increased welding speeds, and that same year, plasma arc welding was invented. Electroslag welding was introduced in 1958, and it was followed by its cousin, electrogas welding, in 1961. Types of Welding Process Forge welding is the oldest known form of welding, is a welding process of heating two or more pieces of wrought iron or steel until their surfaces are malleable and then hammering them together. Often a flux is used to keep the welding surfaces from oxidizing and producing a poor quality weld. A simple flux can be made from borax, sometimes with the addition of iron filings. Care must be taken to avoid "burning" the metal, which is overheating to the point that it gives off sparks from rapid oxidation. Cold or contact welding was first recognized as a general materials phenomenon in the 1940s. It was then discovered that two clean, flat surfaces of similar metal would strongly adhere if brought into contact under vacuum. It is now known that the force of adhesion following first contact can be augmented by pressing the metals tightly together, increasing the duration of contact, raising the temperature of the work pieces, or any combination of the preceding. Electron beam welding is a welding process where the energy to melt the material is applied by an electron beam. To avoid dispersion of the electron beam, the work piece is typically placed in a vacuum chamber, although electron beam welding under atmospheric pressure is attempted too. Electron beam welding is an established branch of Electron Beam Technology. Explosive welding uses the force of a controlled detonation to atomically fuse one metal object to another. The process is popular for the joining of dissimilar metals. Explosive welding is considered a cold welding process that allows metals to be joined without losing their pre-welded metallurgical properties. This process allows the joining of different metals that would be impossible by any other welding process. Friction welding; rotary friction welding was the first of the friction welding methods to be developed and commercially used. There are two method variations: continuous drive rotary friction welding and stored energy friction welding. In the first method, a piece is rotated at a set speed while the joining stationary piece is fed into it at a pre-determined pressure until the metal in the joint area reaches a temperature high enough to melt it. The other method, also known as inertia welding adds a flywheel to the rotating piece and power is cut as the two pieces are forced together with the same end result-a welded joint. Parts with a non-rotational geometry can be joined by linear reciprocating frictional welding which is similar in form to a reciprocating saw. Friction-stir welding was invented and experimentally proven by Wayne Thomas and a team of his colleagues at the TWI Welding Institute, U. K., in December 1991. TWI holds a patent for the process. In FSW, a cylindrical-shouldered tool, with a profiled threaded / unthreaded probe (nib) is rotated at a constant speed and fed at a constant traverse rate into the joint line between two pieces. Fusion welding is any welding process that uses a heat source to weld a material and also usually uses a protective shield from the atmosphere by a gas shield or flux or both. This would include gas, stick, mig, tig, sub-arc, laser, orbital, plasma, spot, stud, thermite, and electron beam welding. Gas welding, the heat energy and high temperature needed to melt the metal is obtained by the combustion of a fuel gas with oxygen. Gas Fuels--The most commonly used fuel gas is acetylene. Other gases used are liquified petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas, hydrogen and MAPP gas. Acetylene is obtained from the action of water upon calcium carbide. Calcium carbide and water combine to yield acetylene gas and lime as a byproduct.

 Induction welding is a form of welding that uses electromagnetic induction to heat the workpiece. The welding apparatus contains an induction coil that is energized with a radio-frequency electric current. This generates a high-frequency electromagnetic field that acts on either an electrically conductive or a ferromagnetic workpiece. In an electrically conductive workpiece, such as steel, the main heating effect is resistive heating, which is due to magnetically induced currents called eddy currents. Nonmagnetic materials such as plastics can be induction-welded by implanting them with metallic or ferro-magnetic compounds called susceptors, that absorb the electromagnetic energy from the induction coil, become hot, and lose their heat energy to the surrounding material by thermal conduction. Laser welding is an integral part of the plastics and metal working industries. A wide variety of cutting and welding operations can be performed on a variety of hard to weld and dissimilar materials with this process. A benefit of laser cutting is the ability to cut a wide range of materials such as metal, polymers, ceramics, wood, leather, cloth, and more. Cladding, heat-treating and hard-surfacing can also be accomplished with laser welding. Manual Metal Arc welding, also known as stick or SMAW-Shielded Metal Arc Welding is one of the most common and reliable forms of welding. An electric current (either alternating current or direct current) is used to form an arc between an electrode coated in flux and the metals to be joined. The flux gives off gases to prevent oxygen reacting with the weld metal. The flux then solidifies to form slag on top of the weld. Once cool the slag can easily be chipped off provided that the weld is properly applied. Metal Inert Gas or MIG welding, also known as gas metal arc welding, is a type of welding which utilizes a welding gun through which a continuous wire electrode and a shielding gas is fed. The wires used in the electrodes are typically 0.7, 1.0, 1.2 or 1.6 mm diameter, either solid or 'flux' filled. To prevent nitrogen and oxygen contaminating the weld, an inert shielding gas is fed around the arc, either argon or helium. Plasma welding is a process that utilizes a stream of ionized particles. It originated in 1955 as an aluminum cutting process and used as such until the first successful welds were produced in 1963. The plasma torch uses a water-cooled copper nozzle and tungsten electrode. An electric arc is produced between the electrode and copper nozzle while a gas such as helium or hydrogen is forced through the arc. The gas becomes super-heated and ionizes into a plasma stream. Resistance Spot Welding is a quick and simple method of welding metal. It uses two large electrodes which are placed on either side of the surface to be welded, and passes a large electrical current through them that heats up the metal in-between. The result is a small "spot" that is quickly heated to the melting point, forming a small dot of welded metal. Applying the current for too long can burn a hole right through the material. Stud welding is an electric arc process for attaching studs and other fasteners to steel and other surfaces. Stud welding eliminates the need for drilling or punching holes in the structure. Special collets on the stud gun hold a ceramic ferrule in place around the stud. This ferrule holds the molten metal in place and helps form the fillet weld as the stud cools after it is shot onto the structure. Submerged arc welding is a type of welding which utilizes a large diameter wire electrode, typically 3 or 4mm diameter. The electrode is fed into the arc at a controlled rate. The arc is shielded by a granular flux which is poured to form a pile of flux surrounding the arc. Unlike other types of arc welding, eye protection is not required, since the arc is covered by the flux. Some of the flux is converted to slag by the arc, which protects the weld as it cools. The slag can easily be chipped off the weld when cool. Surplus flux is collected for re-use. A thermite or thermit reaction is one in which aluminum metal is oxidized by an oxide of another metal, most commonly that of iron. (The name thermite is also used to

refer to a mixture of two such chemicals.) The products are aluminium oxide, free elemental metal and a great deal of heat. The reactants are commonly powdered and mixed with a binder to keep the material solid and prevent separation. Tungsten inert gas welding or TIG is also known as gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) or HELIARC, a trade name of Linde. A fixed tungsten electrode protected by a shielding gas is used to create an arc that melts the metal of the parts to be joined. As there is no continuous feed wire electrode as with MIG welding, a filler rod is dipped in the puddle of molten metal to join the two parts. Ultrasonic welding; energy is delivered to the joint area in the form of highpower ultrasound. This type of welding is used to build assemblies that are too small, complex, or delicate for more common welding techniques to be appropriate. It is also used to weld plastics and materials that are dissimilar. For joining complex injection molded parts, ultrasonic welding requires expensive custom equipment specially designed for the parts being welded. The parts are sandwiched between shaped mandrel and the horn. One of the plastic parts has a spiked energy director which contacts the second plastic part. The ultrasonic energy melts the point contact between and the parts and they are joined. This process replaces a glued joint. Underwater SMAW Welding In underwater SMAW welding, a coated welding electrode along with an insulated electrode holder is used to make sound welds. This type of welding is used to weld assemblies that are impractical or too expensive to move above water. Specific techniques are used to insure a sound weld. Application of Welding

Computer & Electrical industries Aerospace & Automotive industries Medical Industry Packaging Industry Underwater Welding Welding on live sub sea pipelines to attach anodes Welding in explosive environments and zoned areas Welding materials that are difficult to join by fusion welding processes Friction plug welding Welding pipe fittings onto flat or curved surfaces Construction of steel structures Fabrication Industry Robotics industry

Welding
What is Welding? History Types of Welding Process Application

Jennie V. Vicenta MPET 1h