Lisbon's Vasco da Gama Bridge is the longest in Europe, spanning a total distance of 10.7 miles. Taking three years to complete, the bridge opened for traffic in 1998 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Vasco da Dama's discovery of the maritime route from Europe to India.
The arc temperature may be upto 20,000 K. Although TIG welding produces the highest quality welds, it is a slow and expensive process. Metal inert gas welding process (MIG) is economical with consumable electrode fed at a predetermined rate. Plasma arc welding (PAW) has made substantial progress in utilising the high heat energy of an ionised gas stream.
Fig. 1 The basic arc-welding circuit. In arc welding, the intense heat needed to melt metal is produced by an electric arc. The arc is formed between the actual work and an electrode (stick or wire) that is manually or mechanically guided along the joint.