It's okay, I can make this joke because some of my best friends are welders
this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2024
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As others are sure to point out: welding bad for health.
UV radiation that will give you a near-instant sunburn. Combined with IR radiation that will literally burn your retinas if you don't protect them properly.
Then theres the fact that you're dealing with upwards of 1200°C/2200°F molten steel. And depending on your process you also have argon/CO2 gas leaks to worry about. That or the flux fumes or vaporized oxides and various metals will get you.
But welding is also fun as shit, and surprisingly accessible as long as you're not doing structural stuff without proper training.
Before too much longer, I figure pro welders will be using advanced VR and motion capture technology to remote-control welding robots. No need to protect your skin, eyes, and lungs, since you're not even near the physical welding. Also, the robot would literally have the welding equipment attached to its arms, so you'd be working as if you're just pointing and gesturing.
I'm basically describing the "Waldo" concept of remote manipulators, from Robert Heinlein's work. Look it up. The full capacity of that vision is becoming more and more possible.
I mean, Heinlein was an insane dickhead, on a personal and political level, but whattayagonnado.
I wonder if that type of tech is going to be cost-effective anytime soon. Probably depends on the scale you're going to be manufacturing on.
I really don't see this happening in all sectors where people need "metal hot snot guns". At least until advanced robotics become more of a commodity.
I figure it'll basically be two kinds of work that can do that shit, for a long time:
Minimally tethered, highly mobile robots that can climb all over the place and do industrial welding, in high places, underwater, on the side of rockets, in construction work, etc. These will be ruinously expensive, for a long time. But they will be worth it, because you can literally have the next shift come in and put the control-suit on, without even having the robot waste time climbing down. And you never have to worry about human safety protocols.
Robots that are more bound to a single "station" area. Kind of like the robotic welding machines that do autonomous tasks in the automobile industry, but set up for full human control, from the next room. These would probably be much cheaper, since they wouldn't have to move on their own. You'd have to set the work in front of them and pick it up when the task was done. But, again, they'd be cheaper than the mobile ones.
Either way, this would be something that would be confined to relatively specific use cases, for quite a while.