Chapter 1: Introduction to Welding

A city scene of buildings with a suspension bridge in the background.
Our World Has a Skeleton of Steel / Photo Credit: 12019, Pixabay License

Overview

Recall movies you have watched showing Vikings or Samurai wielding swords. Think of walking through a large city and looking up at the skyscrapers. Drive your car or ride a bus over a bridge. Open your refrigerator and open a soft drink can. One thing all of these objects have in common is they are made of metals; even concrete structures are reinforced with steel. Indeed, if we did not have the technology to make things out of metals, we would still be living in the Stone Age. Literally.

The general public is probably unaware of the importance welders/weldors have in our society. From the manufacturing of objects (ranging from cars and furniture to surgical equipment and everything in between), building and maintaining the equipment that manufactures objects, and construction of buildings and infrastructure; practically every object surrounding you either is made of metal or was made or transported on equipment made of metal. And welders are the people who melt these metals (and sometimes glass and plastic) together.

Objectives

After completing this chapter, students will be able to:

  • Understand the significance of welding in our modern world
  • Identify common career paths in the welding industry

Key Terms

  • Welding
  • Blacksmith
  • Electric arc welding
  • Automatic Wire feed welding
  • Gas tungsten arc welding
  • Metal alloys
  • Carbon arc welding
  • Forge welding
  • Fusion welding
  • flux cored wire feed welding
  • FCAW
  • SMAW
  • GMAW
  • GTAW
  • Manual welding.
  • Semiautomatic welding
  • Welder (weldor)

Attributions

  1. Chapter opening image: image released under the Pixabay License
definition

License

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Introduction to Welding Copyright © by Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.