Welding and joining: moving from art to science

The field of welding and joining has progressed markedly during the 76 years since the American Welding Society was formed, but the rate of progress must increase if one is to keep pace with the rapidly advancing technology. This can be done if the approach emphasizes simple, quantitative explorations that contain the essential physics of the process. Unfortunately, too much effort is often spent on refining existing analyses with even more sophisticated mathematics. While this does demonstrate mathematical proficiency, it does not advance the field of welding and joining very far. It is necessary to step back and critically question what is known and why it is known. Only by quantifying the hypotheses and by testing them experimentally can one hope to progress as rapidly as one must.