Word: welder
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Commonest form of welding used today is arc welding. An arc welder has for his tool a device that holds a pencil-sized metal rod carrying a heavy (around 200 amps) electric current of low voltage. When he brings the rod close to the metal to be welded, the current leaps across the near-contact, forming a blinding arc whose temperature-some 6,500° F.-melts both the rod and the metal being welded into tiny molten pools which quickly cool into solid metal. Since the welder's rod (called an electrode) melts down like a candle...
...welding arc that if it is held more than an instant on one spot, it will eat a hole through a thick steel plate. With his brilliant sputtering arc always in motion, a masked welder "knits" a seam by laying molten steel deposits endlessly atop each other...
...Saves man power hence cost. One welder can assemble as much steel as a four-man riveting team. Since only some 20% of the required skilled labor was on hand when the defense shipbuilding program began, it was four times as efficient to train welders as it would have been to train riveters...
...Saves time, because large hull sections can be welded together in shops, then hauled & hoisted to the ways and welded into a complete hull. In shops welding is quicker than in the ways, since a welder can easily reach difficult spots and never has to weld over his head with molten steel drops raining down on his mask and shoulders. Formerly, a keel was laid in the ways and riveters started at the middle and worked slowly toward each end of the ship, because the plates had to be staggered and overlapped in an intricate patchwork. The 530,000 rivets...
...Ingalls will have to build many more ships to make good its boast that its new methods will revolutionize U. S. shipbuilding. In contrast with the machine-gun clamor of most shipyards, Pascagoula's noises are a sibilant hiss. Biggest plug for welding is the fact that one welder can do the job of a four-man riveting team-a big saving in labor (40% of shipyard cost). Ingalls welds complete stern assemblies, bow sections, etc. up to 75 tons on platforms in the yard, swings them into place with big gantry cranes. It reverses old-line shipbuilding techniques...