Welding Repair

Welding joins materials by applying heat, and sometimes pressure, with or without the use of a filler metal. The process joins metals by melting, fusing, and solidifying the joined area. Welding is used to fuse structural components for aircraft, cars, ships, and most other metal industrial products. Industry firms perform general repairs in their own shops on welded items, such as motor vehicles. Welders that travel to construction sites are represented in SIC 1799: Construction, Industry.
There are numerous welding techniques used for different applications. One of the most common is shielded metal-arc welding, which uses an electric arc to quickly weld a point. Cold welding, a more specialized technique, uses pressure alone to join metals without any heat. Explosion welding uses a controlled blast to pressure two metals. Other welding techniques include diffusion, which uses heat and pressure; laser-beam; ultrasonic, which utilizes high-frequency vibration; and variations of electric arc welding.

Massive U.S. industrial expansion during the twentieth century was joined with an identifiable welding repair industry. The boom in post-World War II car and truck sales created further demand for welding repair shops. By the end of the 1970s, welding repair revenues approached $1 billion and industry jobs surpassed 24,000. Although U.S. industrial output, particularly for cars, rose during the 1980s, inflation-adjusted welding repair revenues stagnated. The development of new welding techniques, which increased durability, was one reason for a decline in repair work. Increased use of synthetic metal substitutes also reduced demand for welding repairs.

The majority of welders work in the manufacturing industry. Welding repair is generally one of the functions of those workers, while welders in other industries perform specialized functions, largely in automobile repair, or offer general services. Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers are categorized together by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as workers who use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products. About 45,875 people were employed in welding repair in 2008, and over half worked in manufacturing. Of the over 14,875 welding repair shops in the late 2000s, more than half were sole proprietorships, and over 85 percent had fewer than five employees. In 2008, the industry generated $3.1 billion in revenues.

Many welders are trained on the job, though vocational and technical schools offer formal training programs and the U.S. military operates welding schools for enlisted personnel. While the demand for welders by manufacturers might decline, the job outlook for welding repairers is positive because these positions were less likely to be replaced by automation.