Welding is all around us – in the bridges we cross, the planes we board, the pipes that supply our factories – and yet it’s one of the least visible trades in the industrial world.
Every April since 1996, the American Welding Society has been reminding us of its importance through National Welding Month. It’s a chance to look beyond the clichés.
Numbers that make you dizzy
- The global welding market represented $27 billion in 2025, and is expected to reach $41 billion by 2034. (Source: Fortune Business Insights)
- In the United States alone, there were 771,000 welding professionals in 2024. (Source: American Welding Society)
- In France, 100,000 welding jobs need to be filled over the next few years to revive French factories. (Source: La Fabrique)
- In France, the need for new ships continues to grow. Chantiers de l’Atlantique, for example, has signed a 3.5 billion euro contract to build two new giant liners, to be delivered in 2029 and 2030.
A business that reinvents itself
- In 2024, laser welding, 3D metal printing and augmented reality have taken industry to a whole new level. Welders now often occupy hybrid roles, combining manual know-how with mastery of robotized systems.
- In Europe, laser welding is gaining ground. France is one of the fastest-growing European economies in this segment, behind Germany, the UK and Italy.
- Training is also evolving: augmented reality simulations are now used to learn how to weld in a safe environment, before picking up a welding unit.
2,000 years ago
Welding is nothing new. Forge welding, in which two metal parts are heated and hammered together, dates back over 2,000 years. What ancient blacksmiths did by instinct, we do today with sensors, algorithms and international standards. The principle has not changed. The stakes in terms of reliability, however, are far higher.
Quality: the angle everyone underestimates
A faulty weld is not always visible to the naked eye. Welding defects can lead to rejected parts, costly repairs, degraded performance – and in the most serious cases, catastrophic failure with loss of life and property.
In regulated sectors such as energy, aerospace or chemicals, the margin for error is minute. A leak or crack can trigger regulatory audits, shutdowns or, worse still, serious accidents.
According to Central Welding Supply, correcting a welding defect once the part has been manufactured generally costs two to three times the initial manufacturing cost. And when the defect is only detected during the test phase or, worse still, in service, the consequences are incomparable.
That’s why traceability, documentation and real-time tracking are no longer optional – they’ve become standard in critical industries.
Celebrating welding month is one thing. Guaranteeing the quality of every cord is even better.
At SIRFULL, we work every day with welding engineers to ensure that compliance is no longer an administrative constraint, but an operational reflex.
