What does a future in welding look like? According to industry estimates, it’s looking fairly bright, indeed. The United States has remained a powerhouse economy, providing countless populations with the products and resources they need to move forward. This is best done when American workers are at their best, both skill-wise and with good technology under their belt. Should you be considering another career path, engineering is a field that’s bursting with opportunity. But what does welding entail? Should you know the difference between a non sparking wrench or pipe alignment clamp first?
Get an overview on welders and brazers below. There’s nothing like a little perspective to get your future in order.
Welding has been around a very long time. Some of the earliest societies boasted impressive technology for the era, crafting tools and products that some historians wouldn’t have even thought possible. The earliest known recording of welding was all the way back in 3,500 B.C. Ancient cultures in the Middle East, Europe and all across Africa showed evidence of welding for both artistic and functional purposes. This technique wouldn’t start becoming industrialized until the 1800’s, with war and a rapidly growing economy being some of the key reasons for expansion.
Today there are over 500,000 welders employed across the United States, thanks to figures provided by the American Welding Society. It’s thought as many as 50% of products made in the country involve welding at some point in development, making it one of the most in-demand industries as we know it. Welding (and similar fields such as cutting and soldering) is not unlike sculpting, used to carve and adjust metal until it better suits our purposes. Tools used to make this range from pipe alignment tools (common in plumbing and repair) to purge monitors.
As stated above, the best material handling equipment will go a long way in creating a product that lasts. Due to the constant interaction with high volumes of heat, heavy machinery and sharp metal safety is an utmost concern for all workers. The function of purge monitors, for example, help engineers conduct quick spot checks without losing accuracy. Suppliers for non sparking tools have their work cut out for them, as the industry only continues to address the growing divide between unique metals and the best ways to handle them down the production line.
Knowing the differences between each form of metal is key to carving out a successful path as a welder or cutter. Out of any copper alloy, beryllium copper is by far the hardest and strongest. It has a tensile strength of 1280 to even 1480 MPa. Non-magnetic titanium, on the other hand, is considered 100% safe to use for any bio-medical or diagnostic imaging machines (think MRIs or CAT scanning devices). On the bright side, manufacturing accounts for two out of every three welding jobs. This ensures your field will likely never run out of demand. On the downside, thousands of dollars in labor are lost every year due to companies relying on old-fashioned tools.
Purge kits, purge monitors and magnetic resonance imaging has a lot of ground to cover. The Bureau Of Labor Statistics has expected employment for cutters, solderers and welders to exceed 412,000 in less than ten years. A career in welding is one that just about everyone in the country benefits from, whether they realize it or not. With figures suggesting steady growth and more companies becoming privy to the positive impact of strong tools, now has never been a better time to get started.
