1.2 How We Depend on Welded Products Every Day
Douglas Rupik, M.Ed., JIW
Welding and the Familiar Items We Use
It is perhaps easiest to make a blanket statement that practically everything we touch is metal or has been produced or transported on equipment made from welded metal. To illustrate this point:
Imagine what it would be like to live in a world without welding or metal objects. You would not rely on an alarm clock to wake up in the morning because electricity would not be available without a wire. If you got up before sunrise, you would need a candle for light. You would not have running water because there would be no metal or plastic plumbing. (Why no plastic? Plastic is a petroleum product, and we would not be able to drill or refine petroleum without metals.) You would have to rely on a well or nearby lake or stream for water, requiring you to use a clay pitcher or wood bucket to carry the water to your house. No indoor plumbing also means using an outhouse. Your home would probably be heated by a wood fire since an electric or gas/oil furnace would not exist without metal. In the summer, you would have no air conditioning.
You would get dressed in clothes made from animal skins or natural fibers such as wool, cotton, or hemp woven by hand on a wood-framed loom because synthetic fibers such as nylon, polyester, polyester fleece, etc., would not exist without petroleum. Without modern production methods, which rely on metals, you might only have one set of clothes to wear. With no spandex or other elastics, fashions would be much different, to say the least.
Your breakfast would be either local fresh food (long-distance transportation on trucks or trains would not exist without metal), or foods preserved by salting, pickling, or drying since you would not have a freezer (unless you had access to ice from a frozen body of water or a glacier). There would be no canned goods whatsoever (remember, no metals). You would eat your breakfast with wood or clay dishes and utensils, or simply use your hands.
Your transportation to work or school would be either a pack animal (horse, donkey, camel, or sled dog team), a wood or skin-covered boat, or you would walk. Any bridges would be made from wood or stone—significant concrete structures require steel rebar for strength, and so bridges would not exist in the form we recognize today.
All of this time, you would not have access to music, videos, or social media because the cell phones, TVs, and computers used to listen and watch such media are all composed of welded metals.
Modern society, with all its comforts, depends on metals for its very existence. While many people in the world may live in different conditions than you, very few people live without any of the benefits brought by metals.
The Hidden Impact of Welding
As we read previously, a world without metals would actually have left us in the Stone Age. Our modern world is built on commerce, the buying and selling of goods and services. Shipping, agriculture, communication, manufacturing of durable goods, our built environment, and infrastructure all depend on the fabrication and repair and maintenance of metal products.
No matter where you live in the world, a high standard of living requires first and foremost, a consistent supply of quality food. Most of us who live in industrialized nations take it for granted that we have easy access to food. This supply of food begins on a farm, where farmers use tractors, plows, harvesters, and trucks to grow, harvest, and transport food. Railroads, trucks, and ships distribute these foods locally as well as globally to stores and restaurants. At each stage of this process, equipment is subject to being built and repaired by welding. Were this modern system suddenly replaced by the prior methods of horses and wooden carts, millions would likely die due to the inability to deliver adequate amounts of food to population centers in a timely manner.
Modern manufacturing is based on mass production rather than one-of-a-kind cottage industry objects. Manufacturing equipment must be made of metals to be durable enough to withstand the repeated stress of creating parts and products. Welding is a skill crucial to the maintenance of this equipment. Like in the agricultural industry, these products must be shipped from the factory to the consumer, another process dependent on a metal infrastructure that may require welding repair at any time.
While commerce is what the world is built on, it runs on petroleum. The petrochemical industry is highly dependent on the skills of welders.
Our built environment—that is the roads, bridges, and cities we live in—are also highly dependent on welding for both initial construction as well as maintenance and repair.
Attributions
- Figure 1.45: Amtrak Auto Train 52 Passing Through Guinea Station by Fan Railer is released under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Figure 1.5: Stack of shipping containers at Bassendean, Western Australia by Kgbo is released under CC BY-SA 4.0