Welding, as most people know, is when you use a torch to melt a material to another material, as well as add some filler material for strength. However, there are a lot of different welds that can be made, and a lot of different ways you can make them. For example, some common types of energy sources for welding include a gas flame, lasers, electric arcs, electron beams, ultrasound, and friction. For the purpose of this post, I'll be talking about laser welding, since it is newer, and involves lasers which are just inherently cool. Welding using a laser beam consists of a concentrated laser beam, which provides a lot of energy making a weld fast, deep, and within a small area. Because of the extreme heat of the laser, however, some materials can be prone to cracking. It is also important to focus the laser properly, as the weld is the most effective when the focal point is just below the surface of the material being welded. Laser welding also has some advantages over electron beam welding, primarily that it can be done in air and is not required to be done in a vacuum, and does not produce x-rays. Welding is just one of those things you dont think about that much, and don't realize how important it is to so many every day things, and it is really cool that innovations are still being made in welding to adapt new technologies, such as lasers, into a hundred year old proscess.