Three similar materials processes, welding, brazing, and soldering involve joining materials together.
Welding is distinct from the other two methods because it uses a higher temperature than brazing and soldering, melting the two (or more) pieces of ‘base’ material to be joined together. And while brazing and soldering are almost always used solely with metals, welding is occasionally used on glass and thermoplastic materials. Welding often, but not always, uses a filler material between the joints being connected (the weld pool), and requires a form of shielding to prevent contamination and oxidation while metals are melted.
There are many different types of welding, with many different energy sources, too numerous to go into here. Though less common, there are also solid state welding processes that do not melt the metals involved, such as friction welding, cold welding, or explosion welding.
Brazing and soldering are similar techniques, but brazing uses higher temperatures than soldering, with the division usually defined as occurring at 450oC. With brazing, two independent pieces of metal are connected to form one (hopefully) strong joint. The actual connection is created using a filler material, the braze material or brazing rod, which is melted by the heat of the metals being joined - not the flame of the torch used.
Commonly associated with electronics, soldering is performed at a lower temperature than welding or brazing, and also does not involve melting of the pieces to be joined. When soldering, the filler metal (or solder) has a lower melting temperature than the metals to be connected, and is the only material to melt during the process. This is why when people think of soldering, they often think of electronics - soldering doesn’t damage the circuit boards, when done correctly. As with brazing and welding, there are numerous soldering techniques and methods, as well as filler materials.
In summary:
Welding fuses similar materials together at high temperatures, sometimes with a filler material, sometimes not. The materials to be joined melt in the process.
Brazing fuses two metals together with a filler material which has a lower melting temperature than the joined pieces. It is a high temperature version of soldering, and not as strong as welding (but there is also minimal impact on the joined pieces, which do not have to be similar).
Soldering is a low temperature version of brazing. As with brazing, only the filler metal melts, and solders create the weakest joints of the three methods (which is not an issue when you simply want electrical conductivity across circuits).
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