NEIL JENKINS  

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Welding Fume

For my dissertation, I studied welding fume. (Why it was researched.)
This welding fume research is reported in my publications.

Here are some other welding fume researchers and other welding fume publications.

Here are some multimedia files related to my welding fume research that are not easily published in print (all files are quicktime video or animated gifs). I filmed and edited all of the videos, except where noted.


I used a welding chamber that was built by Joseph Quimby and Dr. Gael Ulrich at the University of New Hampshire. See J. B. Quimby and G. D. Ulrich, "Fume Formation Rates in Gas-Shielded Metal Arc Welding," Welding Journal, 78: 142-149,1999.

  • the welding chamber (32 MB)
  • welding inside the chamber (0.3 MB)


    • Airborne particles can be formed during welding through evaporation/condensation and through liquid (micro)spatter formation. Fume (which looks like steam or smoke, but is actually comprised of solid particles) and spattering can be seen in these high speed videos:

  • high speed laser shadow video of gas metal arc welding electrode droplet and fume formation (38 MB)
    this experiment was created and filmed by Dr. Larry Jones (see L. A. Jones, "Dynamic Electrode Forces in Gas Metal Arc Welding," PhD Thesis, MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1996) and I selected, digitized, and edited it.

  • high speed video of 2% O2-argon-shielded gas metal arc welding (notice fume) (1.3 MB)
  • high speed video of carbon dioxide-shielded gas metal arc welding (notice spatter) (3 MB)

  • resistance welding (1 MB) and plasma cutting (1.5 MB) can also create spatter.
    I selected, digitized, and edited the resistance welding experiment described in "Cinematography of Resistance Spot Welding of Galvanized Steel Sheet," C.T. Lane, C.D. Sorensen, G.B. Hunter, S.A. Gedeon, and T.W. Eagar, Welding Journal, 66(9), 260s, 1987.


    A small apparatus was also created to create a welding-type arc for a short pulse (100-500 milliseconds), only long enough to create a single electrode droplet. Care was taken not to allow enough time for the droplet to detach. This was used to study the condensation of electrode-formed vapor on the base metal, and to quantify the exact mass lost from the electrode due to evaporation during arcing:

  • single-pulse welding apparatus (28 MB)