The American Welding Society defines welding as follows

“A localized Coalescence (the fusion or growing together of the grain structure of the materials being welded) of metals or non-metals produced either by heating the materials to the required welding temperatures with or without the application of pressure or by the application of pressure alone, and with or without the use of filler materials.”

Essentially this means that a weld is made when separate pieces of material to be joined combine and form one piece when heated to a temperature high enough to cause softening or melting and flow together. Pressure may or may not be required, and sometimes pressure is used by itself to force the two pieces to combine and form one piece. Filler metal may or may not be added to the weld. Remember I’m using the word material because welding is not limited to metals. However for our purposes, this guide will be limited to steels and aluminum (aluminium for our friends across the pond).

This guide will eventually have the following subjects.

Welding Safety
Picking a welding process.
Fundamentals of Arc Welding
Shielded Metal Arc Welding
OxyAcetylene welding and Oxyfuel Cutting
Plasma cutting
Gas Tungsten Arc Welding
Gas Metal Arc Welding
Brazing and soldering
Gas Storage and delivery systems
Welding Cast Iron
Steel metallurgy
Welding Terminology
Q/A


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Below is a chart of welding and allied processes.You'll see alot of these abbreviations being used in my articles.