48 cards

Welding Flash Cards

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Welding Flash Cards

Brazing

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Processes 12

Arc welding An electric arc between an electrode and the base material melts the metals where they meet.
Brazing A filler metal with a lower melting point flows into the joint. The workpieces do not melt.
FCAW Flux-cored arc welding. A continuously fed tubular electrode holds the flux.
Forge welding A solid-state process. Two pieces are heated to a high temperature, then hammered together.
GMAW Gas metal arc welding, or MIG. A wire electrode and a shielding gas feed through the gun.
GTAW Gas tungsten arc welding, or TIG. The tungsten electrode is not consumed. Inert gas shields it.
Oxy-fuel welding A fuel gas burned with pure oxygen makes the flame. Commonly called gas welding.
Plasma cutting Cuts electrically conductive metal with an accelerated jet of hot plasma.
SAW Submerged arc welding. The arc is covered by a blanket of granular flux.
SMAW Shielded metal arc welding, or stick welding. A flux-covered electrode melts to lay the weld.
Soldering Joins metal surfaces with a filler metal called solder, at a lower temperature than brazing.
Spot welding Two copper alloy electrodes clamp sheet metal and pass current at a spot: a resistance weld.

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Arc, electrode and shielding 12

Base metal The metal of the pieces being welded. Also called the parent metal.
DCEN Direct current with a negatively charged electrode.
Electric arc A lasting electrical discharge through a gas. In arc welding it supplies the heat.
Electrode Conducts current to the arc. A consumable electrode melts into the weld. Tungsten does not.
Filler metal In welding, brazing or soldering, the metal added to make the joint.
Flux Keeps the base and filler metals from oxidizing in the heat. It coats a stick electrode.
Heat-affected zone HAZ. Base metal beside the weld that did not melt but had its properties changed by heat.
Shielding gas Inert or semi-inert gas that protects the weld area from oxygen and water vapor.
Slag Flux that melted and then solidified over the weld. It is chipped away afterward.
Spatter Small, unwanted droplets of molten metal thrown out during welding.
Weld pool The pool of molten metal at the joint that cools to form the weld. Also called the puddle.
Welding power supply Provides the electric current for arc welding, as alternating or direct current.

Joints and welds 12

Butt joint Two pieces lie in the same plane and are welded where their ends meet, with no overlap.
Face of a fillet weld The outer surface you see when you look at the weld.
Fillet weld Joins two pieces that are perpendicular or at an angle. The weld is triangular in shape.
Lap joint Two pieces of metal overlap and are welded at the edges.
Leg of a fillet weld The legs are the other two sides of the triangle. Leg length is usually the stated weld size.
Root of a fillet weld The part of deepest penetration, at the corner opposite the face.
Tack weld A small, isolated weld that positions and holds the pieces, usually before the final weld.
Tee joint Two pieces are joined perpendicular to each other, in the form of a T.
Throat of a fillet weld The distance from the center of the face to the root of the weld.
Toe of a fillet weld The toes are the two edges of the weld face.
Weld bead The weld left as the puddle is pushed along a joint.
Welding joint The point or edge where pieces are joined. Five basic types: butt, corner, edge, lap, tee.

Weld defects 12

Arc strike A spot of remelted or heat-affected metal left by an arc, sometimes outside the weld area.
Cold cracking Often develops after the weld has solidified. Also called hydrogen-assisted cracking.
Crater crack Forms in the crater left where the welding arc is broken.
Distortion Heated metal shrinks as it cools, so the finished piece is not the desired shape.
Hot cracking Also called solidification cracking. It happens in the fusion zone of a weld.
Incomplete penetration The weld bead does not start at the root of the groove, leaving channels there.
Lack of fusion The weld bead adheres poorly to the base metal.
Lamellar tearing Occurs in welded rolled steel plate when shrinkage pulls at right angles to the plate faces.
Porosity A gas inclusion: gas trapped within the weld as it solidified.
Slag inclusion Slag or flux trapped in the weld. It usually occurs in processes that use flux.
Undercut The weld reduces the thickness of the base metal beside it and weakens the joint.
Welding defect Any flaw that makes a welded piece less fit for use.

How this list was compiled: Own work: 48 welding terms, each with a meaning of a few words and one line written for this page. On 2026-10-16 every card was read against the Wikipedia article it comes from (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welding and the articles on each process, on Welding joint, Fillet weld, Welding defect, Heat-affected zone, Shielding gas, Flux (metallurgy), Filler metal and Electrode), and Tack weld against its entry in Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tack_weld). The five joint types are the ones Wikipedia gives from the American Welding Society. Licence: own work

How it works

Welding flash cards for a shop class or a first welding course: 48 terms, each with a short meaning and one line. The page opens on the processes, where SMAW turns over to stick welding. Vocabulary only, not safety training.

Read the full guide

Four sets of 12 welding terms

Processes has the five arc processes by their abbreviations, then gas welding, spot welding, brazing and soldering. Arc, electrode and shielding covers flux, slag, spatter, the weld pool and the heat-affected zone. Joints and welds holds the butt, lap and tee joints, the tack weld and the five parts of a fillet weld. Weld defects runs from porosity and undercut to three kinds of crack.

A set to a sheet

Once a card has been turned, the print button shows below it. Each set fits a single sheet of Letter or A4, and the whole deck needs four. Print on both sides, flip on the long edge, and stick welding sits behind SMAW.

The size of a fillet weld usually means its leg length, not its throat.
Slag is hardened flux, so it forms in stick, flux-cored and submerged arc welding.
A hot crack forms as the weld solidifies. A cold crack often shows up after it has set.

Questions and answers

What do SMAW, GMAW and GTAW stand for?

Shielded metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding and gas tungsten arc welding. In the shop they go by stick, MIG and TIG.

What are the five basic types of weld joints?

Butt, corner, edge, lap and tee, the five named by the American Welding Society. In a butt joint the pieces lie in the same plane. In a tee joint they meet at a right angle.

What is the difference between MIG and TIG welding?

MIG feeds a wire electrode through the welding gun, and the wire melts into the weld. TIG uses a tungsten electrode that is not consumed, and a filler metal is normally used with it. Both shield the weld with gas.

What is the difference between welding and brazing?

Welding melts the base metal so the pieces fuse. Brazing melts only a filler metal with a lower melting point, which flows into the joint. Soldering works the same way at a lower temperature than brazing.