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This study analyzed the market trends of welding consumables and welding robots from international welding industries using data reported by SHIMPO CORPORATION. Recently established companies are planning to use automation to achieve high performance with cheap labor. In this context, welding robots are commonly used in manufacturing facilities to perform high-quality welds at a faster rate than with manual welding. In addition, most welding procedures exhaust welding consumables such as rods and wires. Therefore, it is possible to estimate the trends of the overall welding market and related application industry market through the market trends of welding robots and welding con- sumables. From 2009 to 2021, the sales of welding consumables grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.17%, whereas those of welding robots grew at a CAGR of 11.17%. The higher growth rates in developing countries have lifted up the overall market growth, whereas the rates in leading markets such as the US and China have tended to slow down. In conclusion, the increasing demands for manufacturing and construction in developing countries such as India and Southeast Asia are expected to drive the market growth in the coming years.

In laser welding of austenitic stainless steels, shielding gases have great potential for improving the mechanical properties of the welds, suppressing plasma plumes, and stabilizing the keyhole. Previous studies have shown that shielding gases can alter the weld geometry and microstructural constituents of the welds. Disturbances of laser beam absorption by laser-induced plasma can be controlled through shielding gas parameters such as the shielding gas composition, flow rate, and supplying direction. In addition, surface-active elements added to the shielding gas can alter the behavior of the molten pool. In this paper, previous studies are reviewed to assess the shielding gas effects on the characteristics of laser-welded austenitic stainless steel. The activated mechanism of molten pool flow by additional surface tension active elements is also discussed.

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