April is National Welding Month! In Honor of this the team here at CEI wanted to reflect on what welding is and what it means to us.
As we spoke and discussed topics of what we could do to commemorate this year's National Welding Month, the idea that welding was an art rather than a science was brought up.
Welding is an art, it is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. It can be an expression in a sense.
Sculptures can be and are created as a painter creates a painting. The ideas are formulated in the mind of the artist and those ideas are then projected into reality. The difference is a painter uses paint and a paintbrush while a welder uses metal and a welding torch.
And as the melody in which music flows from a world-renowned vocalist or musician so does the passes and beads in which the welder lays, in some cases the waves of these passes can be as beautiful as the ocean itself.
Welding is a science, it is an activity that appears to require study and method and it is the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.
It is a science which uses high levels of mathematics and experimental data, to establish precise heat inputs, travels speeds, voltages, and amperages to be used to combine two pieces of metal together, as if they were one.
The precision or “science” of these calculations has to be so precise not to burn through the metal and to leave the now single piece strong enough to handle tension, bending, toughness and hardening.
Our analysis is that welding is both an art and a science. It is used by each one of us every day from our homes, our cars, bridges, flights, etc. And that being the case we appreciate the Month and we salute our users and to all members of the Welding Industry our hats go off to you. Happy National Welding Month from CEI!
If you’d like to hear more from Antonio about how CEI helps the Welding Industry year-round, be sure to watch out for our latest webinar where he will explain how to use software to drive efficiencies in Welding Procedure Management and Welder Certification. You can also download his article from the February edition of AWS Welding Journal right now!