Four Most Common Methods of Welding

Ability to make tools and the way we make them has set us apart from other animals since prehistoric times. What helped us thrive is how efficiently we made them with stones, and then metals – bronze and iron respectively. If the discovery of metals pushed us ahead, it is the invention of welding that harnessed the true power of metals in tool making and jumpstarted the industrial evolution.  

Welding, the fusion process of joining metals or plastic together dates back to Bronze Age (3300 BC) ad played a pivotal role in tool and even weapon making. However, it was only in the year 1800 the efficiency of this fusion process was taken to another level with the application of electric arc for welding. Another 45 years later, arc welding came up and set the stage for shielded metal arc welding which is widely considered to be the foundation for modern welding. Since the 19th century, the technological revolution enabled more efficient, accurate, and faster welding techniques and also welding machines that make them possible. But what are the most common welding methods predominantly used around the world today? Our engineering team at C- Way Exports is here to answer.

Some of the common welding methods used today across the world include:

MIG Welding – Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW): MIG stands for Metal Inert Gas welding also called wire welding and is conventionally termed Gas Meta Arc Metal by the American Welding Society. It is an electric arc welding procedure where the wire which is fed through a machine acts as an electrode. The wire electrode is continuously fed when the trigger is passing a current and the shielding gas and the arc thus is formed melting the wire electrode and the base metal. The wire electrode melts and the adding the filler metal to the joint while the shielding gas protects the melted wire from reacting with water vapour, oxygen, and other gases present in the atmosphere.  TIG Welding – Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW): TIG welding stands for Tungsten Inert Gas Welding also known as Gas Tungsten Arc Welding is an electric arc welding process that uses a non-consumable electrode made from Tungsten to enable welding. Unlike MIG welding where the electrode is consumable, TIG welding has a non-consumable electrode that only melts the base material. A filler rod is used to create the weld by melting it with the arc created by the sharp electrode. The TID welding also uses a shielding gas to guard this molten metal against reacting with the atmosphere.  Stick Welding – Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW): Stick welding is the earliest form of welding that is a simple and effective type of welding which is being used for centuries now. Also known as Shielded Metal Arc Welding, it is an electric arc welding procedure where the metal electrode is used to create an arc. The electric current that is passed through the metal electrode generates the electric arc that melts both the base metal and metal electrode to form a joint with the filler metal. As the metal melts away it also releases certain gases that tend to protect the weld and hence shielded gases are not required in this form of welding. Stick welding is easy to learn and works on almost all regular metals but may take time when compared to other welding procedures.  Flux Welding – Cored Arc Welding (FCAW):  As the name suggests flex welding is an arc welding process where the electrode is a tubular wire filled with flux at the core. Similar to MIG welding the tabular wire is continuously fed for the arc to melt both the metals which mix, solidify and form the joint. FCAW-S and FCWAS-G are two types of flux core welding techniques that are classified based on the type of shielding agent used in the process. While FCAW-S used self-shielded electrodes, FCWAS-G uses self-shielding gas to guard the molten joint. Other types of welding include Energy Beam Welding (EBW) which uses a high energy electron beam, Atomic Hydrogen Welding which uses an arc produced by two tungsten electrodes, and Plasma Arc Welding which is similar to TIG welding to make durable welds. As top industrial equipment suppliers in India, C-Way Exports regularly work with industries all around the world to help them access best welding machines that fit the requirements. If you are an industry facility looking for welding suppliers in India that can cater to your needs at an affordable price point, you can contact C-Way Exports here: https://www.cwayexports.com/