Welded Steel Bar

It is often necessary to join two metals together - like when constructing some of the huge buildings that dominate the skylines of modern cities, or the vast ocean-going liners that spend months at sea at a time, transporting goods all over the planet. The economics of the car industry is highly dependent on welding robots, and the rail and pipeline industries are equally dependent on this technique. Its also a popular technique in the arts for sculpture.

Welding is the technique of choice for joining together metals, which require a high-strength bond between two parent parts, and that must last indefinitely. Welding is not a trivial process however; it requires that both parts be melted together to create a permanent joint between them, and which must not be significantly weaker than the materials it is joining. Looking at this particular section, the weld joint can be seen where the interface of each steel section were brought into contact and then melted together by means of a welding torch, heating the steel to above 1400°C.