A Career in Welding Engineering

A welding engineer is concerned with all of the activities related to the design, production,
performance, and maintenance of welded products. Interest is primarily in the fabricated
product, including material selection, manufacturing methods, equipment/tooling, operator
training, quality control, performance evaluation, sales, and service. The broad range of welded
products with which welding engineers deal includes structures, such as bridges and buildings;
pressure vessels and heat exchangers, such as nuclear/thermal/hydroelectric power systems,
boilers, chemical processing equipment, storage vessels, and transmission and distribution
piping; transportation vehicles for water, land, air, and space travel; and production and
processing machines of all types.
An inter-disciplinary field like Welding Engineering requires a working knowledge of several
different disciplines, with a strong grounding in at least one at the entry Level. The major
disciplines are:

Design, including work in engineering mechanics, stress analysis, structures, and

machine and production design;

The materials used in manufacture, knowledge of physical metallurgy, metallography,

and physical chemistry;

Manufacturing processes including electrical equipment and control; and

Fitness for service including non-destructive testing.

A good welding engineer is proficient in Engineering and Technology, Mathematics, Design,

Physics, Chemistry, Production and Processing, Computers and Electronics and of course,
Administration and Management. All in all, a graduate/post-graduate in Metallurgical
Engineering, Material Sciences, Mechanical Engineering or Production Engineering is best
suited to a career in Welding Engineering. This is not to say, however, that graduates in other
streams cannot succeed in the field.
The primary tasks of a welding engineer are:
1. Conduct research and development to improve existing or to develop new welding
equipment.
2. Conduct research and development to develop new or to modify current welding
techniques and procedures.
3. Conduct research and development to develop and test new fabrication processes and
procedures.
4. Establish welding procedures for production and welding personnel, to ensure
compliance with end use requirements.
5. Evaluate new equipment, techniques, and materials for possible application to current
welding problems or production processes.
6. Provide technical help to manufacturing in execution of welding processes.

7. Conduct failure analysis investigations and develop preventive action plans.

8. Direct and coordinate technical inspections to ensure compliance with established
welding procedures and standards.
Key skills include:
1. Information Gathering: Knowing how to find information and identifying essential
information
2. Product Inspection: Inspecting and evaluating the quality of products
3. Idea Evaluation: Evaluating the likely success of an idea in relation to the demands of
the situation
4. Operations Analysis: Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design
5. Critical Thinking: Using logic and analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of
different approaches
6. Implementation Planning : Developing approaches for implementing an idea
7. Technology Design: Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user
needs
8. Testing : Conducting tests to determine whether equipment, software, or procedures are
operating as expected
9. Troubleshooting: Determining what is causing an operating error and deciding what to
do about it
10. Service Orientation: Actively looking for ways to help people.
Work activities include:
1. Updating and Using Job-Relevant Knowledge: Keeping up-to-date technically and
knowing one's own jobs' and related jobs' functions.
2. Monitor Processes, Material, or Surroundings: Monitoring and reviewing information from
materials, events, or the environment, often to detect problems or to find out when things
are finished.
3. Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Material: Inspecting or diagnosing equipment,
structures, or materials to identify the causes of errors or other problems or defects.
4. Analyzing Data or Information: Identifying underlying principles, reasons, or facts by
breaking down information or data into separate parts.
5. Evaluating Information Against Standards: Evaluating information against a set of
standards and verifying that it is correct.
6. Implementing Ideas or Programs: Conducting or carrying out work procedures and
activities in accord with one's own ideas or information provided through
directions/instructions for purposes of installing, modifying, preparing, delivering,
constructing, integrating, finishing, or completing programs, systems, structures, or
products.
7. Drafting and Specifying Technical Devices: Providing documentation, detailed
instructions, drawings, or specifications to inform others about how devices, parts,

equipment, or structures are to be fabricated, constructed, assembled, modified,

maintained, or used.
Careers:
1. Fabrication industry: Welding engineers review design (of weldment), develop welding
procedure/technique, qualify procedure/welders and equipment used for welding and
oversee implemention on the job. Welding Engineers can also move to areas as diverse
as Quality Control, Project management and marketing after a few years of experience
in the field.
2. Quality Survey:
Various agencies hire welding engineers to interface with
manufacturing plants and vendor facilities to make sure they are aware of their scope of
supply and all customer specific requirements related to that scope of supply. They also
review welding procedures and coordinate the creation of weld maps and welding books
for all phases of the project.
3. Academia: For those who wish to work in an academic environment, a career in
academia would be fulfilling and rewarding. Most Metallurgy/ Material Sciences
department (refer table 2) have a few faculty members specializing in materials joining.
Avenues for Industry-Institute interaction abound and there are a number of professors
who serve as consultants to the industry.
4. Ship-building: There is a lot of scope for welding engineers in the ship-building industry,
which has taken off in a big way in India. Construction as well as repair/ maintenance of
vessels involve extensive use of welding. There are several public and private shipyards
that hire welding engineers.
5. Marketing: A large number of welding engineers are engaged in marketing of welding
consumables as well as equipment. The function involves a good amount of problem
solving at the customers sites.
6. Research: Apart from the academia, some of the welding consumable/equipment
manufacturers run respectable sized research and development wings. Apart from the
commercial establishments, the government institutes like BARC, IGCAR, VSSC have
research programs in the field of welding. Some of the work done at these is
internationally recognized.
7. Consultation: Many of the small and medium scale companies do not have the
necessary human resource for handling specialized functions like welding and they rely
on consultants. Obviously this avenue is suitable for the experienced professionals.

In India, PG course in Welding Engineering are offered by some IITs, NITs and other reputed
universities (refer table 1). Some like NIT Trichy and MS University, Baroda have direct
collaborations with Industry (BHEL and L&T respectively) and offer good industry exposure.
Furthermore, The International Institute of Welding offers certification courses, such as
International Welding Engineer, International Welding Technologist and International Welding
Specialist to professionals with work experience, through its various authorized bodies.

All in all, opportunities in the welding field are endless and can be extremely rewarding and
because it is widely used in a number of key industries. Welding is an important part of our
nations growth and stability. In fact, for those who are involved in the welding industry, there is
a strong conviction that a large part of Indias emergent economy is dependent on welding, and
that continued advances in the field help to drive this nations productivity and strengthen its
financial stability.
Whether you enjoy working with your hands, traveling the world, inspecting and analyzing
things, working with numbers, communicating or inspiring others, there is a career opportunity
available in the welding industry.

Table 1: Institutes/ Universities that offer degrees in Welding Engineering

Table 2: Welding Engineering research groups in India (list is not exhaustive)

Sr
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Institute/ University
IIT Bombay
IIT Kharagpur

Professor(s)

Amitava De
GL Datta
S Chakraborty
S Aravindan
IIT Delhi
S Pandey
DRG Achar
IIT Madras
K Prasad Rao
B Guha
IIT Roorkee
PK Ghosh
Jadavapur University
TK Pal
BHU, Varanasi
AK Ghosh
Welding
Research V Thyagarajan
Institute, trichy

E-mail ID
amit@iitb.ac.in
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aravindan@mech.iitd.ac.in
spandey@mech.iitd.ac.in
achar@iitm.ac.in
kpr@iitm.ac.in
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Ph: 0431-2577506