Like many companies, Ultra Machine and Fabrication Inc., Shelby, N.C., a fabricator of armored military vehicles, believed the welders should clean up their own weldments for spatter, slag, and other discontinuities. But when welders were spending less and less time under the hood, Ultra re-evaluated this philosophy and, as a result, implemented a separate postweld cleaning team.

The orbital welding process has seen significant advancements in electronic control technology that have helped open the door to a wider array of applications while making it more cost effective to use.

The X-factor, also known as the Bruscato factor, is an important equation for anyone welding with chrome-moly steel. The equation will help you test your filler metals for levels of phosphorus, antimony, tin, and arsenic that could make a weldment susceptible to temper embrittlement.

Architects and engineers are designing structures with new and innovative shapes. To meet these ever-changing requirements, manufacturers may turn to solid-state, high-frequency electric resistance welding (HF ERW) to produce engineered structural sections at high speeds with unlimited beam profiles, better structural performance, and with lighter weights.

Many structural steel fabricators are loyal to shielded metal arc welding (SMAW). But technology advancements in the wire feed process known as flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), paired with an increasingly competitive market, have changed the landscape of structural steel environments, and by extension the opinions of the most loyal SMAW users.

A truss railroad bridge that was destroyed in a massive flood was replaced within a year thanks to a fast-tracked rebuild effort that featured W44 beams.

Author and co-founder of New America Foundation gives his insights regarding the U.S.'s crumbling infrastructure and provides tangible ways the federal government can address the situation.