It’s a common scene in many workshops and engineering projects – two people holding a pair of welding tools and working at a high temperature. A lot of people tend to confuse welding with soldering and the big question is what is the difference between welding and soldering?
Welding and soldering are essential processes used in many different industrial engineering applications across the globe. It’s estimated that there are more than 50 million active welders in the world, producing more than 3 trillion pounds of weld every year. Welders and solderers also account for 12% of the global workforce.
To fully explain the difference between soldering and welding, it is important to understand what they involve. Welding is an extreme form of joining two or more materials, usually metal, in which a pool of molten material is created and used to permanently join them.
Soldering, on the other hand, is a softer, less extreme form of joining materials and requires a filler material to bond the two objects being joined together. Continue reading to understand the difference between welding and soldering and the various applications of both techniques.
What Is the Difference Between Welding and Soldering?
Welding and soldering are both techniques that are used to join two or more components together.Although they serve the same purpose, there are distinct differences between welds and solders.
Welding
Welding is a fabrication process that uses intense heat and pressure to join two or more pieces of metal together. It is a strong, permanent bonding technique with a variety of applications, such as structural steel, vehicle frames and plumbing work.Types of Welding
Based on the level of heat used during the welding process, there are four types of welding:- MIG welding – These are arc welding processes in which a filler metal or welding electrode is fed into the weld pool from a continuously fed filler wire.
- TIG welding -Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) is an arc welding process that produces strong, corrosion-resistant welds by heat generated by an electric arc between a consumable electrode and the workpiece.
- Stick welding – In this process, an electric current forms an electric arc between the stick and the metal parts that are being welded together.
- Flux-cored arc welding – These are arc welding processes that use a continuous tubular flux-cored electrode filled with inert flux materials to shield the arc from the atmosphere.
Soldering
Soldering is an electrical and mechanical process used to join two or more electrical or electronic components and materials onto a circuit board or other metal components.It is relatively weak compared to welding, but can be used to connect objects that are difficult to weld, such as wires and small components.
Types of Soldering
Just like welding, soldering also has different types, including:- Tin-lead soldering – This is a traditional soldering technique that uses an alloy of tin and lead to join two metals together.
- Lead-free soldering – This is a modern soldering technique that uses lead-free alloys to join two metals together.
- Encapsulation – This is a soldering technique used to encase components and materials in a plastic or composite material.
- Selective soldering – This is a soldering technique used to joint or attach components and materials to a specific section of a circuit board.