Although many of us are likely to be unaware of this fact, the world around us as it is today has been largely made possible by welding, one of the most necessary and essential trades. Thousands of industries have been reliant on advances in the industry for many years, and the trade has become one that we simply cannot live without. Read on to discover some of the welding wonders of the world.
Trans-Alaska Pipeline
The Trans-Alaska pipeline is commonly thought of as among the world’s historic welding projects. Thousands of welders endured Alaska’s wilderness terrain and harsh climate for three years in order to weld the pipeline which is forty-eight inches in diameter. Since its completion, over seventeen billion oil barrels have flowed to Valdez Bay from the Prudhoe Bay oil field located in North Alaska.
The Vertical Assembly Center
NASA is just one organization that has relied heavily on the welding trade over the years and thanks to welding has been able to do things that once seemed absolutely impossible. Making its debut in September 2014, The Vertical Assembly Center became the largest welding tool in the world. Its purpose is to bring together the Space Launch System, which is a rocket set to be the largest and most powerful ever designed. It will travel journeys not only to the moon, but to other destinations such as Mars and asteroids.
Cloud Gate
One of Chicago’s most iconic structures and standing at sixty-six feet long and thirty-three feet high, Cloud Gate, known locally as ‘the bean’ due to its shape, was brought to life by the work of teams of hundreds of welders, metal fabricators, technicians and engineers. Designer Anish Kapoor was inspired by liquid mercury when coming up with the idea for the unique structure. Because of this, most of the work went on inside the structure, which was created by a seamless series of polished, steel plates – some of which weighed as much as 1,500 pounds. To achieve the perfect appearance, once curved the sheets were welded to the rib-system, a task which used a mammoth amount of welding supplies and the work of a dedicated welding team.
Disney’s Spaceship Earth
The main purpose of Disney’s Spaceship Earth, one of the most iconic structures ever build by Disney Imagineering, was to ‘bring the world together through technology’ – and it has certainly accomplished that. Standing at 182 feet tall, Spaceship Earth was just 7 feet shy of being the tallest attraction at the time of its construction. In order to create the structure, welding was a key task – most of which was done off site using industrial tools such as those you could buy at Lincoln Electric’s store. This was done in order to improve quality control and in order to provide better working conditions.
Can you think of any more iconic structures or machines that have been made possible by welding? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
