Info About...Construction

Welding is a process which sculpturally joins materials together; these materials tend to be metals or thermoplastics. They are joined together through the process by the use of melting causing coalescence and adding a filter material to form the weld pool; this then cools and becomes the joint between the two materials, this can be done through heating or on its own.

Welding can be done by using different sorts of sources, for example a gas flame or a laser, and it can also take place in a number of environments for outside to up in space, not that the majority of us will go up to space to do a bit of welding! Welding is extremely dangerous and should only be done by those who know what they are doing, but precautions need to be taken in order to prevent any burns, eye damage and too much exposure to ultraviolet lighting.

The first form of welding consisted of heating and pounding metals together in order to join them, this technique was called forge welding and was most common amongst blacksmiths in the 19th century. However welding soon advanced during the 20th century as WW I and WW II but the pressure on welders to produce a way that was both quick, reliable and didn't cost a lot! During this time was when the popular form of welding known as shielded metal arc welding was developed. Since then many welding processes have been developed with the most recent being robot welding, however researchers continue to advance upon the welding technique.

The most common use of welding is in ship building, automobile manufacturing and repair and a number of other manufacturing jobs. An example of the most common welding is called Arc welding, which involves two large metal alligator clips which a large electrical current passes through. One of the clips are attached to one of the pieces being joined, the other is then connected to a thin welding rod, which then passing through a powerful electric current. The power of this then results in both the two pieces and the steel rod melt together and then cool to form a strong bond.

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• Welcome to Info About Construction, a look at the practices, skills and techniques used in the construction industry.