What is welding? This is the process by which two or more pieces of materials will be fused together. There are two things that will ensure that welding is going to happen successfully – there should be enough heat and enough pressure. You need to know the different types of welding process with diagrams to have a better understanding of how welding works.
Forage Welding – The First Type of Welding
There was a time when only one type of welding was done by welders. This is called Forge welding. Forge welding requires heating two pieces of metal and hammering them together until they are joined together. If the heat would not be too high, the metal will not melt and this type of welding cannot be done. Take note that this may not apply to all types of metals. This will depend on the metals’ thickness and malleability.
Types of Welding
You may be interested to know the different welding processes already. It will be nice to know the various types of welding first to help you understand the welding process further.
- Plastic Welding – This type of welding will require combining plastic with metal. All of the plastic and metal pieces should be heated to ensure that they will melt. This can make it easier for the materials to be fused together.
- Liquid State Welding – This type of welding will require heating the metal until it reaches its liquid state then it will be mixed with other materials before it can become solid again.
- Cold Welding – This type of welding does not need heat. The pressure is used in order to fuse two or more materials together.
Different Types of Welding Processes with Diagram
It can be hard to keep track of the various welding processes. The welding types and definitions can be highly confusing. They may seem the same in the beginning but the more that you know about it, the more that you will know why one welding method is better depending on the materials that you want to put together.
Gas Welding
This is the type of welding process that makes use of gas which can be oxygen or acetylene. Gas welding is done without the use of filler metals. There are three types of welding that can be found under this:
- Air Acetylene Welding – This requires mixing both acetylene and air. It will come to a point wherein the weld will be possible without the need to use heat or filler metals. This can be used for some sheets of copper.
- Oxy Hydrogen Welding -This type of welding is effectively used for cutting. This can be used to polish different surfaces or to melt some expensive metals.
- Oxy-Acetylene Welding – This is probably one of the most popular types of gas welding. This makes use of different fuel gases to have the ability to cut various metal pieces soon after. Jewelry designers use this process to intricately cut and design jewelry.
Arc Welding
Arc welding can be automatic and it can also be manual depending on the tools and machines that will be used. The ends of the metals are connected with the use of electricity. The ends of the metal pieces will be melted before they will be fused and solidified with other materials. This type of welding will require a constant supply to be sure.
- Shielded Metal Arc Welding – This can be used to repair large machines. The process can be dangerous if people would not follow the right steps to do this type of welding. Machines that are used to do this type of welding are considered to be affordable. This can also work on surfaces that are not very smooth.
- Gas Tungsten Arc Welding – This will make use of the Tungsten electrode in order to do welding properly. GTAW is used primarily for aerospace welding. This can be used for thin materials that can be welded easily.
- Gas Metal Arc Welding – This is a process that may seem manual in the beginning but the more that you look at the process, you will realize that it can be done with semi-automatic and automatic tools. This is the choice of people who are learning how to do welding for the first time. It is easy to do and can be used for various materials.
- Flux Colored Arc Welding – This will make use of used fed electrode and also tabular wires. This is the choice of people who would like to do a method of welding that will have a powerful impact on metal. GMAW is normally used for items that are related to the automotive industry.
- Submerged Arc Welding – This type of welding is normally used in order to get rid of corrosion on steel. Vessel construction will not be done properly without the use of this type of welding.
Resistance Welding
Production sites make use of this type of welding. This can make different metal parts and sheets to become fused together. The strong current will be heated so that the metals can be properly melted. There are following processes that are involved in this type of welding such as the following:
- Seam Welding – A technique like this is used to fuse two similar metals. This will use copper electrodes. This type of welding was used to create the beverage cans that a lot of people are familiar with.
- Spot Welding – This is a process used to combine two or more metal sheets. This would not require filler materials to use which means that you do not have to spend too much when doing this type of welding. Environmentalists will be happy with this as this is more environment-friendly than the other available options.
- Resistance Butt Welding – This would need the combination of heat and pressure to ensure that two types of metals will be properly combined. This type of welding can be done in a fast manner. Small components can be combined better when this type of welding is used.
- Flash Welding – This type of welding is used in the railroad industry a lot. This is also used to fuse different types of metal together like copper and aluminum or steel and copper.
Radiant Energy Welding
What can you expect about this type of welding based on its name alone? This makes use of radiant energy to ensure that different materials will be combined together successfully. There are various techniques that are being used such as the following:
- Laser Beam Welding – The laser beam will combine two or more items easily. This can be used in an open environment and it will not take a lot of time to do.
- Electron Beam Welding – A lot of people are familiar with this as EBW. This is a high-tech process used to weld and melt different metals successfully before they can be molded together.
Beginners usually steer clear of using this type of welding as the process and the machines that are used are more complicated than the other usual types.
Solid-State Welding
This type of welding will require different metals to be combined when they are at their melting point. There are various processes that can be included in this type of welding but it will be ideal to focus on those that are used more.
- Cold Welding – This type of welding is done at room temperature and will require high pressure so that it can be done successfully.
- Diffusion Welding – This type of welding will require the fusion of materials that are not exactly similar to each other. There are no filler materials that are used to ensure that this process can be done well.
- Explosive Welding – You can guess a lot about what type of a welding process this is based on its name. Chemical explosives will allow different materials to be bonded together. This type of method is done when all the other welding methods have already failed.
Other Types of Welding
You may think that the welding process numbers that you have read are already enough but there are still other types of welding that you can be familiar with. Some of the types of welding that will be mentioned are commonly used for specific purposes. For example, stud arc welding is a type of process that is used for producing the jewelry. Other welding types may be used for processes that are related to jewelry but this is the most common type used.
Conclusion
The details are very clear and it is obvious that the different welding techniques can also produce different results. These methods are being used to create the many materials that we are using in today’s world. From automobiles and the other machines, welding has made it possible for more machines to change today’s technology. Which of the types of welding process with diagrams should be used for your next project?