Submerged arc welding (SAW) is an arc welding process in which the arc is concealed by a blanket of granular and fusible flux. This article provides a schematic illustration of a typical setup for automatic SAW and discusses the advantages and limitations and the process applications of SAW. The article discusses flux classification relative to production method, relative to effect on alloy content of weld deposit, and relative to basicity index. It describes the procedural variations and the effect of weld current, weld voltage, electrical stickout, travel speed, and flux layer depth on weld bead characteristics. The article concludes with information on weld defects, such as lack of fusion, slag entrapment, solidification cracking, hydrogen cracking, or porosity.

Submerged arc welding (SAW) is suited for applications involving long, continuous welds. This article describes the operating principle, application, advantages, limitations, power source, equipment, and fluxes in SAW. It reviews three different types of electrodes manufactured for SAW: solid, cored, and strip. The article highlights the factors to be considered for controlling the welding process, including fit-up of work, travel speed, and flux depth. It also evaluates the defects that occur in SAW: lack of fusion, slag entrapment, solidification cracking, and hydrogen cracking. Finally, the article provides information on the safety measures to be followed in this process.

Electroslag welding (ESW) involves high energy input relative to other welding processes, resulting generally in inferior mechanical properties and specifically in lower toughness of the heat-affected zone. Electrogas welding (EGW) is a method of gas metal or flux cored arc welding, wherein an external gas is supplied to shield the arc, and molding shoes are used to confine the molten weld metal for vertical-position welding. This article describes the fundamentals, temperature relations, consumables, metallurgical and chemical reactions, and process development of ESW. The problems, quality control, and process applications of ESW and EGW are also discussed.

This article discusses the operation principles, advantages, limitations, process parameters, consumables or electrodes, the equipment used, process variations, and safety considerations of gas metal arc welding (GMAW). It reviews the important variables of the GMAW process that affect weld penetration, bead shape, arc stability, productivity, and overall weld quality. These include welding consumables, equipment settings, and gun manipulation. The major components of a GMAW installation such as a welding gun, shielding gas supply, electrode feed unit, power source, and associated controls are discussed.

This article addresses consumable selection and procedure development for the welding of stainless steels. The WRC-1992 diagram and the Schaeffier diagram, are used to illustrate the rationale behind many filler-metal choices. The article discusses the basic metallurgy and base metals of five major families of stainless steels: martensitic stainless steels, ferritic stainless steels, austenitic stainless steels, precipitation-hardening (PH) stainless steels, and duplex ferritic-austenitic stainless steels. Stainless steels of all types are weldable by virtually all welding processes. The article describes the common arc welding processes with regard to procedure and technique errors that can lead to loss of ferrite control with the common austenitic stainless steel weld metals that are designed to contain a small amount of ferrite for protection from hot cracking. The arc welding processes include shielded-metal arc welding, gas-tungsten arc welding, and gas-metal arc welding.

Arc welding is one of several fusion processes for joining metals. This article introduces the fundamentals of arc welding and provides a summary of its history and early discoveries.

Plasma gas metal arc welding (GMAW) is a process that can be defined as a combination of plasma arc welding (PAW) and GMAW within a single torch, where a filler wire is fed through the plasma nozzle orifice. Although originally referred to as plasma-MIG welding, the preferred term is plasma-GMAW. This article provides a detailed discussion on the operating procedures, advantages, disadvantages, and applications of GMAW and describes the equipment used in the plasma-GMAW.

This article is a compilation of definitions for terms related to welding fundamentals and all welding processes. The processes include arc and resistance welding, friction stir welding, laser beam welding, explosive welding, and ultrasonic welding.

This article describes the characterization of welds as a sequence of procedures, where each procedure is concerned with a finer scale of detail. The first level of characterization involves information that may be obtained by direct visual inspection and measurement of the weld. The article discusses nondestructive evaluation of welds by encompassing techniques that are used to characterize the locations and structure of internal and surface defects, including radiography, ultrasonic testing, and liquid penetrant inspection. It reviews the macrostructural characterization of a sectioned weld, including features such as number of passes; weld bead size, shape, and homogeneity; and the orientation of beads in a multipass weld. The article provides examples that describe how welds are characterized according to the procedures.

Hardfacing refers to the deposition of a specially selected material onto a component in order to reduce wear in service as a preventative measure or return a worn component to its original dimensions as a repair procedure. This article provides information on various hardfacing materials, namely, iron-base overlays, chromium carbide-based overlays, nickel- and cobalt-base alloys, and tungsten carbide-based metal-matrix composite overlays. It discusses the types of hardfacing processes, such as arc welding processes, and laser cladded, oxyacetylene brazing and vacuum brazing processes. The arc welding processes include shielding metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding/flux cored arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, submerged arc welding, and plasma transferred arc welding. The article also reviews various factors influencing the selection of the appropriate hardfacing for specific applications.

Hardfacing is a form of surfacing that is applied for the purpose of reducing wear, abrasion, impact, erosion, galling, or cavitation. This article describes the deposition of hardfacing alloys by oxyfuel welding, various arc welding methods, laser welding, and thermal spray processes. It discusses the categories of hardfacing alloy, such as build-up alloys, metal-to-metal wear alloys, metal-to-earth abrasion alloys, tungsten carbides, and nonferrous alloys. A summary of the selection guide for hardfacing alloys is presented in a table. The article describes the procedures for stainless steel weld cladding and the factors influencing joint integrity in dissimilar metal joining. It concludes with a discussion on joining carbon and low-alloy steels to various dissimilar materials (both ferrous and nonferrous) by arc welding.

This article discusses the susceptibility of carbon steels to hydrogen-induced cracking, solidification cracking, lamellar tearing, weld metal porosity, and heat-affected zone (HAZ) mechanical property variations. The composition and mechanical properties of selected carbon steels used in arc welding applications are listed in a table. The article presents process selection guidelines for arc welding carbon steels. It provides information on the shielded metal arc welding, gas-metal arc welding, and flux-cored arc welding, gas-tungsten arc and plasma arc welding, submerged arc welding, electrogas welding, electroslag welding, and stud arc welding.