Welding for aerospace applications

THE use of welding in the aircraft industry has in the past been restricted, in general, to secondary structures owing to the lack of fully weldable aluminium alloys that had a strength after welding comparable with that of the normal aluminium alloys used in aircraft structures. The recent symposium on welding in the aerospace industry sponsored by the Society of British Aerospace Companies has been of great importance in showing that with the arrival of new materials and techniques interest in welding as a major production tool is rapidly growing, and that we are on the threshold of a very significant advance in this field.