The art of joining different metals is quite old. According to historians, weldingtechnology has come a long way since Bronze Age in Middle East and Europe. Weldingwas primarily used in India to build versatile iron pillars. However, until 19th centuryonly Forge Welding had been applied. Welding,in other words,spreaded during the 19thcentury. Mr. Humphrey Davy invented a new welding technique known as ArcWelding. Later in Russia, N. G. Slavianoff, and an American, C. L. Coffin madeadvancements in late 1800s. C.J. Holslag invented Alternating Current Welding in1919. Welding technology developed rapidly in 20th century during World War I andⅡ. Due to abundant welding work at that times, related techniques were developedincluding Submerged Arc Welding and Flux-cored Arc Welding. More recentbreakthroughs in welding include Electron Beam Welding in 1958 and Laser Beamwelding in 1960s.
As we know, not only have new development of physics, chemisty, materials,mechanics, metallurgy, machine and electronics generated new discoveries in weldingnew materials and techniques, but modern computing development, control theory andartificial intelligence will further advance the welding techniques in automatization.Finally we are entering the era of robot welding.
Welding is widely used in all industries. Regardless of its usefulness, it is dangerousas well. So precautions must be taken to avoid burns, electric shock, poisonous fumes,and overexposure to ultraviolet light.
