One of the most popular and common types of welding in use today is arc welding. Yet the average layman walking the street has little understanding of this welding process other seeing the blinding light flashing from a construction job site they may walking past at rush hour. Welding is basically just a fusion process for joining metals. The metals are simply melted together by intense heat and fuse as one piece. If done correctly, welding makes the joining of two pieces of metal with the same strength as single solid piece. A welding joint is superior to gluing because through the welding process, the metals are actually melted together instead using the bonding properties of glue to hold them together.
The key concept in welding is a heat source is needed in order to fuse the metal together. There are several methods of welding and arc welding is one of the most popular. The term arc welding comes from the fact that an electrical arc is created to produce intense heat. This arc is formed between the metal being worked on and an electrode connected to the arc welder. The electrode rod is moved along the joint and is melted by the electrical arc. The rod has two...