7.1 Equipment Used in the Construction Industry
Douglas Rupik, M.Ed., JIW
About 10% of welders work in the construction industry (Welder Demographics and Statistics, n.d.). Examples of building and construction trades that are commonly associated with welding are ironworkers; pipefitters, steamfitters, sprinkler fitters, and plumbers; piledrivers; millwrights; and boilermakers. If you pursue a career in construction, you will likely work in all types of weather and have to travel to jobsites. After a time, you will be able to point to different structures and proudly say, “I built that!”
Perhaps what most distinguishes a construction welder from a shop welder is the size of the objects they work on. Bridges and buildings are large and the parts used to build them are large, which means many of the tools used to assemble them are large. Your first time on a construction jobsite may be intimidating, so let’s discuss some of the equipment you may see.
Specialized Tools Used in Construction
Welding in the field usually requires a gas or diesel-powered welder generator rather than a welding machine that plugs into a wall outlet (110V/220V/480V). Flux-cored welding will likely be performed with a voltage-sensing wire feeder in a suitcase box that gets its operating power from the welding current and requires its own ground on the workpiece. Flux-cored welding performed outside will often involve high deposition, self-shielding wire electrodes.
Working in the field will require you to wear several types of protective gear, namely your welding hood over a hard hat using special headgear and, if working at heights, a chinstrap to prevent your hood from dropping in addition to appropriate fall protection that is either engineered (such as guardrails and scaffolding) or a personal fall arrest system, such as a harness with a lanyard or retractable lifeline.
When working outside, you’re exposed to the elements. Dress appropriately for the weather with clothing made of cotton, wool, or other natural fibers. If the conditions include rain, you may work under an umbrella or need rain gear. This is definitely something that must be taken into account when deciding on welding as a career path.
Hoisting and Lifting Equipment
Moving large building materials has been a problem since ancient times. The human figure statues of Easter Island, Stonehenge in England, and the ancient pyramids in Egypt, the Americas, and Asia were all constructed of stone blocks weighing up to several tons each, and we are still not entirely sure of the exact methods used to hoist or lift and transport the largest of these blocks. We do know, however, that wooden cranes powered by people in giant hamster wheel-like contraptions were used in ancient Rome and the Middle Ages in Europe.
Modern cranes used to hoist heavy materials operate from a similar basic idea, minus the hamster wheel, but are much larger and capable of handling greater weights than their wooden ancestors. The size of the