arc welding (Tig Mig etc.) is now fairly well established.
However, there are two new exciting new applications.
1). is where the welding head is attached to a robot, and complex shaped can be formed by adding weld. it is a form of rapid prototyping. Rolls-Royce use it to put bushes onto casings in production.
2). have a look at stir friction weld. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friction_stir_welding The UK welding institute are pioneering this. The research arm are also good people to speak with :
Thanks for the useful details regarding the arc welding. A recent development in welding technology is the cold metal transfer(CMT) process where the wire retraction motion assists droplet detachment during short circuit.Thus metal can transfer welding pool without the aid of the electromagnetic force leading to drastic decrease the spatter and heat input.The process is ideally suited to welding aluminium and dissimilar joints.
welding essentially remains a repair phenomena. the recent developments will be worth the endeavour when welding graduates to facilitate as a main production process, like metal forming, or foundry, or powder metallurgy.
I know I am going to be bowled when I say "welding essentially remains a repair phenomena". But going to basics helps
Many arc welding robots have been put in service on production line due to features such as spatter suppression,bead defect elimination,high speed welding capability and efficiency.
Look at adaptive arc welding power supplies and hybrid processes like laser / GMAW. Websites for companies like Fronius and Lincoln Electric have a lot of good information.
as said before, arc welding includes many well established techniques. In the recent years there has been a lot development of techniques to control the welding current. CMT is one of them. Nowadays, all bigger suppliers of welding equipment have there technologies, for "cold" welding, like CMT or deeper penetration (force arc, etc).
We go a different way by stabilizing the arc with laser power. You might know that from hybrid processes, which used multi kW laser power. Our approach is to use only a couple 100 W. Therefor we don't have a deep penetration, but we are able to guide and stabilized the arc.
For us and our partners this is an actual field of development in laser/arc technology.
Gas tungsten arc welding is just one of many exciting possibilities in the glorious world of welding. It uses a nonconsumable tungsten electrode to produce a quite fascinating thingumy made of metals all stuck together in a sort of tungstenny mass, but without the excess residue, embarrassment or shame of ordinary welding.
"ascinating thingumy made of metals all stuck together in a sort of tungstenny mass, but without the excess residue, embarrassment or shame of ordinary welding"
One may deploy these droplets to consolidate to a desired mass. Will this [consolidation] be called welding? there are techniques like OSPREY process or RAPID PROTOTYPING, WHICH may be deployed to use competently.. .
I did append as a closing remark
"I know I am going to be bowled when I say "welding essentially remains a repair phenomena". But going to basics helps"
Having taught welding and compared competence and competitiveness this is how the perspective clarifies,
PS not sure why Priyavrat Thareja thinks it is primarily a repair process. Nearly all cars in production used robot welders, as do many assembly processes; washing machines, Dish washers, pipelines just to name a few.
Maximum development has been realized in Gas Metal Arc Welding(GMAW) process with a variety of operating modes characterized in part by the form of metal transfer. Pulse mode and double pulse mode of metal transfer have created a revolution in welding technology and thus GMAW process is being utilized for both ferrous and non ferrous materials as well as for sheet to relatively thicker material.