Overview

As the materials used for building have evolved from earth, wood, stone, and eventually iron, so too did the fabrications. In today’s age, challenging in-service conditions (i.e., temperatures, pressures, and corrosive environments) push the limits in development of new alloys to meet those demands. Then, in turn, new alloys push fabrications into ever harsher in-service conditions. Our explorations of space, the depths of the sea, cryogenic environments, and high-temperature and high-pressure locations have made it necessary to use alloys other than ferrous metals, such as aluminum, titanium, and zirconium that can survive harsher conditions, last a longer service life, and have highe strength-to-weight ratios for fuel economy.

This chapter discusses welding various non-ferrous metals and includes the metals’ properties, common welding processes, filler metals, and uses in industry today. Whether your welding program offers aluminum welding may depend upon the local need and size of your welding school. Other metals, such as reactive metals, will not be offered in your school; however, you may encounter these metals through local employers that weld specialty metals. Due to this possibility, it is important to mention them, as well as the importance of GTAW welding so you can plan your classes accordingly to include more GTAW if this is a career direction for you.

Attributions

1. Chapter opening image: Aluminum Forming Effluent Guidelines by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Public Domain; United States government work.