Different Types of Welding Methods
Following the broad adoption of electricity, numerous welding techniques emerged throughout the Industrial Revolution. Below, we highlight the key ones, or at least the welding methods we believe are essential for you to be familiar with:
1.Types of arc welding
This method of welding, famous for its low cost, gets this name because it produces an electric arc between the metal that is welded during the process and the electrode of the welder, created by a welding power supply.
This arc will heat up the metal until its melting point hits,
The electric arc heats the metal to the point of fusion. Arc welding is especially common because of its low cost.
Among the types of arc welding that we can find are:
Types of electric arc welding
MIG welding
Flux core welding
Metal armored bow
Tungsten inert gas
Tubular flow
Submerged arc welding
2. Welding with energy
Often known as an electron beam or laser beam welding this new method of welding is. It is both an easy to automate welding process and quick, making it suitable for high-speed manufacturing. Welds with electron beams or laser beams use intensely concentrated laser or electron beams.
This form of welding is moreover vulnerable to thermal cracking, something that happens when we expose the metal to very extreme temperature changes.
3. Gas welding
It is also known as an oxyacetylene weld and is one of the oldest and most common weld forms.
This form of welding is used for multiple industrial applications, and also has the benefit that it is very inexpensive, although it has been somewhat overlooked for arc welding, previously stated, due to one of its major disadvantages, particularly in the industrial and manufacturing method. It takes even longer to cool off and is nothing other than gas welding.
4. Types of electric welding
4.1 Resistance welding
This method of welding is also known as spot welding, which is based on an electrical current between two separate metal sections. The current formed will melt into the melting point a very small portion of a point of both metals, thereby helping to seal them together.
Compared to others such as arc or gas welding, the benefit of this method of welding is that it is much simpler to automate and use in simple fabrication processes. But its main disadvantages are that it can only be used to connect two different pieces of metal, which makes it quite limited and also has very high initial costs.
4.1 Solid state welding
Soldering in a solid state succeeds in combining two pieces of metal by means of vibration and strain, which is very unusual because it does not require any form of heat to melt the used metals.
High pressure and vibration use the diffusion process to get the metals to share atoms with each other, combining the two parts into one.
The types of solid state welding that we find are the following:
Explosion welding
Ultrasonic welding
Friction welding
Electromagnetic pulse welding
Roller welding
Co-extrusion welding
Diffusion welding
Cold welding
Exothermic welding
Hot pressure welding
High frequency welding
Induction welding
As for the potential drawbacks that we see in this form of welding, it is that a large preparation of the metal surface is needed in order to be able to start solid state welding which will reflect this in cost.
5. Forging welding
Forging welding, in this case, is the oldest method of welding, since it was the method of welding used by blacksmiths.
This method of welding is achieved by heating and hammering two pieces of low carbon steel, heating them to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982.22 oC).
The advantage we would see in this method of welding is its flexibility, as it can be used to manufacture a wide variety of products. Sadly, however, it also has many drawbacks, because welding metal in this way takes considerably longer than conventional welding forms, only low carbon steel can be so welded, and the carbon used will also influence the welding. Furthermore, in order to heat the furnace, we must not forget the complexity it takes, because blacksmiths need enough expertise to weld in the forging process.
