"The Role of Gases in Welding and Cutting Processes"

From the time that Edmond Fouche and Charles Picard developed the first oxy-acetylene torch, which gave a flame hot enough to melt steel in 1900, gases have played a very important role in the development of welding and cutting processes. In the early 1900s it was gas welding which laid the foundation for the commercial application of welding as a repair and joining process for steel and other metals, till the development of the coated electrode and shielded metal arc welding process by Oscar Kjellberg. Gas cutting, first introduced commercially in 1907, has however continued to be the backbone cutting process for the fabrication industry till today.

Arc welding in a shielding gas atmosphere was patented by C.L.Coffin in 1890. However it was only in the 1940s that commercial use of inert gases Argon and Helium for shielding of the arc in the Gas Tungsten Arc and Gas Metal Arc welding processes was developed. The use of carbon dioxide and later argon based gas mixtures further enhanced the productivity and performance of Gas Metal Arc welding so that it has become the dominant welding process today.

Gases and gas mixtures have also played a crucial role in the development of more advanced welding and cutting processes such as plasma and laser and today they play a very significant part in controlling the quality and cost effectiveness in any welded fabrication.

The paper attempts to review the history and role of gases in the development of the welding and cutting processes through the years till the modern times.