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8 Joining and Fastening

8.1 INTRODUCTION TO JOINING

Engineering structures rarely start out as a single part, so joining is often a key “The purpose of the
process in the manufacture of devices or assemblies or the erection of structures.
The purpose of the joint is to keep the component parts of assemblies or structures joint is to keep the
together while maintaining the designed arrangement, orientation, and alignment to
allow the overall assembly or structure to perform its intended function(s) while component parts of
resisting imposed loads. This can be accomplished by several means, and most will
be discussed in this chapter. assemblies or
Welding is a joining procedure in which shape changes are only minor in charac-
ter and local in effect. Welding may be defined as “the permanent union of metallic structures
surfaces by establishing atom-to-atom bonds between the surfaces.” In practice,
some distinction is usually made between true welding, on the one hand, and brazing together ...”
and soldering on the other. In true welding, the filler material has a composition sim-
ilar to that of the base metal(s). In brazing and soldering, however, the filler is a
metal with a lower melting point than the base metal(s). Adhesive joining, which is
sometimes performed as a true welding process with certain plastics, usually makes
use of organic adhesives, often containing plastic filters and inorganic solvents that
fuse the surfaces of the plastic and adhesive together. With some plastics, a sound