【Essential for equipment professionals】A 50-year review of welding technology in New China

1. Experts from the former Soviet Union helped establish welding specialties, as well as train welding instructors and skilled workers in this field. In the early years after liberation, China’s industry was highly underdeveloped, with many engineering and technical fields still unknown in the country. To accelerate the development of industry in our country, the former Soviet Union assisted in building 156 key projects and imported a large amount of industrial equipment and technology from it. However, to accelerate the development of our industry, it is even more important to speed up the training of engineering and technical personnel. To this end, the central authorities instructed that experience from the former Soviet Union in training high-level scientific and technical personnel should be adopted, by inviting experts from that country to teach at domestic universities to assist in establishing new specialties and cultivating engineering and technical talents. At that time, Harbin Institute of Technology was **designated as one of the two key universities in the country to learn from the Soviet Union’s educational practices; as a result, the welding technology and equipment major was established at Harbin Institute of Technology. Given the severe shortage of welding instructors, and in order to accelerate the training of such professionals, in 1952 Harbin Institute of Technology selected 6 postgraduate students who had enrolled in 1950 to join the first welding instructor training class, thus becoming the members of that first class. In February 1952, Professor Prokhorov, a welding expert from the Bauman Technical University in Moscow, the former Soviet Union, was hired to come to China to oversee the teaching of students in the welding instructor training program and to guide them with their research papers. These six trainees are (in order of the number of strokes in their surnames): Tian Xitang, who graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Zhejiang University in 1950. After joining the welding instructor training program, his research focus was on welded structures. Chen Dinghua graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the former Central University in 1946; after joining the welding instructor training program, his research focus was on the principles of welding. Zhou Zhenfeng graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the former Tangshan Railway Institute (now Northern Jiaotong University) in 1950; after joining the welding instructor training program, his research focus was on gas welding and cutting. Luo Dingchang graduated from the Department of Management at Jiaotong University in Shanghai in 1949; after joining the welding instructor training program, his area of research focused on workshop design. Xu Zicai graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Zhejiang University in 1950; after joining the welding instructor training program, his research focus was arc welding. Pan Jiluan graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University in 1948; after joining the welding instructor training program, his research focus was resistance welding.

The first welding instructor training class graduated in July 1953. After graduation, Luo Dingchang went to a military-related enterprise, while the other five remained at the Welding Teaching and Research Section of Harbin Institute of Technology. Prokhorov also left China in July 1953 and returned to the Soviet Union. After 1952, domestic universities and other institutions began to offer programs in welding processes and equipment, and welding teaching and research departments were established. In order to train welding instructors for these schools, Harbin Institute of Technology held the second Welding Instructor Training Course in September 1953. Associate Professor G.F. Skun, a welding expert from Moscow Institute of Aeronautical Technology, and Associate Professor M.H. Kabuchinko, a welding expert from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, were invited to China to oversee the teaching and supervision of research papers for the second Welding Instructor Training Course. There were 12 participants in the second Welding Instructor Training Course; they were selected to attend the course after graduating from undergraduate programs. These 12 postgraduate students are (in order of the number of strokes in their surnames): Sun Zijian, Fu Shoumo, Li Shuhuai, She Jian, Qiu Fengxiang, He Weiru, Chen Boli, Na Xuezhong, Zhang Wenyue, Gao Guangan, Tang Muyao, Peng Rihui. The second Welding Training Course graduated in July 1955. After graduation, Fu Shoumo went to Sichuan University, Chen Boli went to Tsinghua University, Tang Muyao and Qiu Fengxiang went to Jiaotong University, while the other eight remained at Harbin Institute of Technology to teach.

Both batches of welding graduate students were supervised by welding experts from the former Soviet Union. Although their undergraduate majors were not in welding, and given that their original fields were mechanics or materials science, under the guidance of these Soviet welding experts, they completed the required coursework for a welding graduate program as well as their graduation thesis projects within one to two years. Later, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Tsinghua University jointly invited Professor G.F. Skakun and Professor A.A. Allov from the Moscow Institute of Aviation Engineering in the former Soviet Union to Beijing to oversee the teaching of the third batch of welding graduate students and guide them through their thesis work. In order to further improve the technical skills of welding professionals and researchers in our country, starting from 1955, we successively sent outstanding welding teachers and researchers to the Soviet Union to pursue associate doctoral degrees in welding. Among them, Jiang Yihong (1959), Zhang Xiuzhi (1961), Guan Qiao (1963), and Wu Zuqian (1963) obtained their master’s degrees from Bao Man University of Technology (Chen Dinghua received his master’s degree from Bao Man University of Technology in China in 1958) ； Sun Zi Jian (born in 1960) and Ren Jialie received associate doctoral degrees from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Meanwhile, some domestic universities and research institutions selected a group of undergraduates to study welding at the Bauman Polytechnic Institute in the Soviet Union, the Leningrad Institute of Technology, the Kyiv Institute of Technology, and the Ural Institute of Technology. Among them, the Ural Polytechnic Institute once had a small group of international students studying welding. From September 1958 to February 1959, Harbin Institute of Technology invited F. Falduš, a corresponding member professor from the Technical University of Prague in the Czech Republic, to Harbin to conduct training courses on welded structures; more than 30 teachers from schools across the country came to Harbin for further training. In the 1950s, postgraduate and undergraduate students trained by foreign experts gradually went to universities and research institutions to engage in welding teaching and research work. Most of them have dedicated four or five decades to welding education and research in our country, becoming renowned scholars and professors in the field of welding, and making significant contributions to the development of welding in our nation.

2. The establishment and development of the welding technology and equipment discipline: Based on the dates of establishment, it is as follows: (1) Harbin Institute of Technology established a welding teaching and research section in 1952; in the same year, two classes of undergraduates who had enrolled in 1950 were selected to study welding, marking the beginning of the training of undergraduate students in this field. The first batch of undergraduate students majoring in welding graduated in 1956. (2) Tianjin University also established a welding teaching and research section in 1952, where junior college students specializing in welding were trained that year, and undergraduate students in welding were trained starting in 1955. (3) Tsinghua University established a Welding Teaching and Research Section in 1955, and began admitting undergraduate students majoring in welding in 1953. (4) Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Xi’an Jiao Tong University established welding teaching and research sections in 1955, and enrolled undergraduate students majoring in welding in the same year. (5) Northwestern Polytechnical University established a welding teaching and research section in 1956, and began admitting undergraduate students majoring in welding in the same year. (6) Dalian Railway Institute established a Welding Teaching and Research Section in 1959, admitting undergraduate students majoring in welding. (6) Jilin University of Technology established a welding teaching and research section in 1960, and began admitting undergraduate students majoring in welding in the same year. (7) The Welding Teaching and Research Section was established in 1953 at Shenyang Machinery Manufacturing School, the predecessor of Shenyang University of Technology, and at Shanghai Shipbuilding School, the predecessor of East China Shipbuilding Institute, to begin training vocational students in welding. By the late 1970s, when the college entrance examination was reinstated, there were 17 colleges and universities in China that offered welding programs. In 1988, there were over 30 schools in China that offered welding programs, including 2 junior colleges and 8 technical schools. By 1992, according to incomplete statistics, 43 institutions nationwide had established welding majors. Before the merger of majors in colleges and universities, more than 50 institutions across the country offered welding programs.

The establishment and development of the Welding Technology and Equipment major at Harbin Institute of Technology serve as a microcosm of the same process in China. To establish a major in welding processes and equipment, it is first necessary to set up a welding laboratory and a welding teaching and research section. In February 1952, Harbin Institute of Technology began to set up a welding laboratory, with Tian Xitang in charge of the preparations. Initially, the laboratory had very few pieces of equipment: just one rotary arc welder, one AC arc welder, and one acetylene generator. The laboratory conditions were very basic; it was initially located in the original mineral processing laboratory and sports equipment storage room in the basement of Harbin Institute of Technology. It was moved several times before, in 1955, an experimental building was constructed in front of the machining factory, and the welding teaching and research department moved to the first and second floors of that building. In 1952, the welding laboratory faced a shortage not only of welding equipment but also of teaching instruments and experimental devices for welding, which severely impacted welding instruction and experimentation. At the end of 1952, the leadership of Harbin Institute of Technology led a team to the Soviet Union to order teaching instruments and laboratory equipment; they also imported a batch of welding equipment and instruments. Upon their arrival at the school, these devices and instruments propelled the Welding Laboratory at Harbin Institute of Technology to the forefront among engineering institutions nationwide, bringing it up to the international advanced level at that time. In particular, in 1989, Harbin Institute of Technology began to establish a **key laboratory for modern welding production technology**. Since 1992, a large number of modern welding equipment and instruments have been introduced and put into operation. **The Key Laboratory was accepted in October 1995** and officially opened to the public. The **Key Laboratory of Modern Welding Production Technology** is the only key laboratory in the field of welding. The laboratory comprises a Quality Control Research Office, an Intelligent Welding Research Office, a Welded Structure Research Office, a Micro-joining Research Office, a Material Joining Research Office, a Non-Destructive Testing Research Office, a Laser Processing Research Office, a Special Welding and Surface Modification Research Office, and a Welding Equipment Research Office. There are currently 29 researchers, including 11 professors and 7 associate professors. The laboratory is equipped with a dozen or so large-scale domestic and international devices, including CO2 laser processing systems, vacuum diffusion bonding equipment, plasma spraying equipment, continuous YAG solid laser systems, arc welding robot systems, VPPAW welding systems, and thermal simulation systems. It also has advanced equipment such as X-ray stress analyzers, precision metallographic microscopes, high-speed cameras, digital ultrasonic eddy current testing devices, impedance analyzers, and fiber laser vibration detectors. The key laboratory provides funding for research projects related to this field to scholars at home and abroad every year. In 2002, the building for the **Key Laboratory** at Harbin Institute of Technology was completed, and the **Key Laboratory of Modern Welding Production Technology** moved into this building.

The Welding Teaching and Research Section at Harbin Institute of Technology began to be established in September 1952, with Pan Jiluan serving as the acting head of the section at that time. In September 1953, the Welding Teaching and Research Section was officially established, with Tian Xitang and Chen Dinghua serving as its director and deputy director respectively (in 1953, Pan Jiluan was transferred to teach at Tsinghua University). After its establishment, the teaching and research section took special measures to accelerate the training of faculty for the welding specialty. In 1952, three six-year undergraduate students transferred from the mechanical engineering program (Xu Binshi, Cui Weida, and Zhai Haihuan) to receive two years of training in welding fundamentals and specialized knowledge, graduating in 1954. In 1953, Jiang Yihong and He Qifan, two undergraduates, were transferred from the mechanical engineering program to undergo two years of training in welding fundamentals and specialized knowledge, graduating in 1955. In order to train engineering and technical personnel in welding as quickly as possible, in September 1952, Harbin Institute of Technology selected a small group of freshmen enrolled that year to attend a two-year junior college program in welding. The 19 students in this group graduated in July 1954 and were all assigned to industrial and mining enterprises to work in welding technology. In September 1952, Harbin Institute of Technology selected two classes of undergraduates who had enrolled in 1950 to study welding. In July 1956, the first batch of six-year undergraduate students in the formal welding program graduated (50 students including Wang Qilong, Huang Wenzhe, and Zhang Xiuzhi). These undergraduate students have all been assigned to colleges, universities, and research institutions across the country to engage in welding education and research work. In the 1950s, Harbin Institute of Technology also held training courses for welding instructors; institutions such as Tianjin University, Jiaotong University, South China Institute of Technology, and Shenyang Machinery Manufacturing School – the predecessor of Shenyang University of Technology – all sent their welding teachers to Harbin Institute of Technology for further training. After returning to their schools, these teachers who had pursued further training became key figures in teaching and research related to welding at their respective institutions. Except for the period of the Cultural Revolution from 1967 to 1972, when Harbin Institute of Technology did not admit students majoring in welding, it has admitted 30 to 90 undergraduate students in this field every year. By 2002, Harbin Institute of Technology had trained approximately 1,990 undergraduates in welding. During the Cultural Revolution, enrollment was suspended from 1966 to 1972; in 1973, students from working-class, rural, and military backgrounds were admitted for the first time, and the college entrance examination system was reinstated in 1977.

In order to broaden the knowledge base of undergraduate graduates, enable them to acquire more fundamental theoretical knowledge during their university studies, and improve their ability to analyze and solve problems, adhering to the principles of emphasizing the teaching of basic and technical courses as well as simplifying academic programs, universities across the country, with the exception of Harbin Institute of Technology, have decided to carry out significant reforms in the teaching of welding-related programs and in the structure of these programs, in line with the relevant guidelines issued by the Education Commission. Universities have now eliminated the welding major at the undergraduate level, replacing it with programs in materials engineering or forming engineering. However, with the approval of the Education Commission, Harbin Institute of Technology became the only institution to retain an undergraduate program in welding, and upgraded the major in welding processes and equipment to a department of Welding Science and Engineering.

3. Compilation and standardization of welding specialty textbooks. Before the Cultural Revolution, the duration of study for undergraduate students in welding specialties at China’s institutions of higher education was five years, with the courses to be determined by the schools themselves. Generally, colleges and universities stipulate that in the first three years, students study basic courses and professional foundation courses, while in the last two years, they study specialized courses and work on their graduation thesis. The basic courses for the undergraduate welding program at that time included Advanced Mathematics, General Physics, Physical Chemistry, Theoretical Mechanics, Electrical Engineering, Descriptive Geometry, and a foreign language. The basic professional courses include: Mechanics of Materials, Metallography and Heat Treatment, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Drawing, Metalworking, etc. The main specialized courses include: Principles of Welding, Welded Structures, Fusion Welding Processes and Equipment (also known as Automatic Welding), Welding Power Sources, Contact Welding, Brazing, Gas Welding and Cutting, and Welding Inspection. The textbooks or teaching references used are mainly in the original Russian version or translated editions. Representative reference books include: “Principles of Welding” by Alov, “Welded Structures” by Nikolayev, “Welding Stresses and Deformations” by Okerblom, “Calculation of Welding Thermal Processes” by Rekalin, “Automatic Arc Welding” by Old Barton, “Fusion Welding Processes” by Young Barton, “Processes and Equipment for Resistance Welding” by Orlov, and “Brazing” by Rashko, among others. In the 1950s, there were no unified professional textbooks for undergraduate students majoring in welding at higher engineering institutions nationwide. In 1960, in line with the principles set out in the 60 Guidelines for Higher Education, teaching order was reorganized; guided by the outcomes of the National Textbook Conference, efforts were made to start publishing textbooks written in China itself. In 1962, the National Textbook Review Committee for the Specialty of Welding Technology and Equipment in Higher Engineering Institutions was established; Professors Tian Xitang and Chen Dinghua served as directors of the committee. In May of the same year, the first meeting of the Editorial Board was held in Hangzhou. In addition to being responsible for organizing the compilation and review of unified textbooks for the welding specialty, the Editorial Committee also handles the development of syllabi and teaching plans for courses related to welding processes and equipment. After 1962, China produced its own textbooks, including: Fundamentals of Welding Metallurgy; Science of Fusion Welding (comprising various fusion welding methods, welding of different metallic materials, and brazing; this book is divided into three volumes: upper, middle, and lower); Equipment for Fusion Arc Welding; and Welding Inspection.

After the Cultural Revolution, the standard duration of study for undergraduate students majoring in welding at institutions of higher education in our country was four years. Regular universities stipulated that during the first two years, students would study basic courses, while in the subsequent two years they would study specialized basic courses and advanced specialized courses, as well as work on their graduation theses. After the implementation of the credit system, the courses in the welding major are divided into compulsory and elective courses. Elective courses are further divided into required electives and optional electives. Elective courses adopt a credit system. In June 1978, the first meeting of the Textbook Review Committee for Welding Technology and Equipment at national higher engineering institutions since the Cultural Revolution was held in Huangshan. To keep up with the advancements in welding technology over the past decade or so, both domestically and internationally, and to meet the professional teaching needs of new university students, it was decided to republish a set of specialized textbooks, which were published by the Machinery Industry Press between 1980 and 1981. The main ones include: Welded Structures, edited by Tian Xitang; Principles and Processes of Metal Fusion Welding (volumes 1 and 2), edited by Zhou Zhenfeng and Zhang Wenyue; Welding Methods and Equipment, volumes 1 to 4, edited respectively by Jiang Huanzhong, Bi Huiqin, Shen Shiyao, and Zou Xi; Arc Welding Power Sources, edited by Zheng Yiting and Huang Shisheng; and Welding Inspection, edited by Liang Qihan. These textbooks were later reprinted or revised multiple times to meet the needs of training welders in our country. In fact, since 1984, four core courses for the welding major have been identified, namely Welding Metallurgy, Arc Welding, Welding Power Sources, and Welded Structures. In 1991, the Teaching Guidance Committee for the Welding Major approved the basic requirements for teaching these core courses. In July 1987, the **Mechanical Industry Committee**, commissioned by the Education Commission, established a professional teaching guidance committee on the basis of the original textbook review committee. In January 1988, the founding meeting of the Teaching Guidance Committee for Welding Technology and Equipment was held at Harbin Institute of Technology. The chairman of the Welding Teaching Steering Committee is Professor Tian Xitang, and the vice-chairman is Professor Zhou Zhenfeng. The Teaching Guidance Committee pointed out that in the later stage of the “Seventh Five-Year Plan,” textbook development focused on teaching reference books, in order to change the situation where each course had only one book. Reference books published during this period include Introduction to Welding Physical Metallurgy, Welding Testing Techniques, Welding Heat Transfer, and others.

The training of postgraduate students in welding in our country: Before the Cultural Revolution, there were 3 universities in our country that trained postgraduate students in welding. In 1955, Harbin Institute of Technology began to train its first group of postgraduate students (under the guidance of welding experts from the former Soviet Union; after those experts returned to their home country, Harbin Institute of Technology took over the supervision). In 1961, Harbin Institute of Technology officially began admitting students to the welding program. In 1959, Tsinghua University began to train postgraduate students in welding. In 1961, Tianjin University also began to admit postgraduate students in welding. Before the Cultural Revolution, there were about 30 welding postgraduate students trained in China, of whom 19 were trained in welding at Tsinghua University. After the Cultural Revolution, in 1978, China resumed the admission of postgraduate students. The number of institutions offering postgraduate programs increased from 3 to 7; in addition to Harbin Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, and Tianjin University, these institutions included Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Dalian Railway Institute, and Beihang University. In 1982, a degree system was introduced for undergraduate and postgraduate students; various institutions gradually obtained the authority to confer master’s and doctoral degrees in welding. The first institutions to be approved by the State Council’s Degree Committee to grant master’s degrees in welding in 1982 were Harbin Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, Tianjin University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, and Shanghai Jiaotong University. The institutions that were granted the authority to confer doctoral degrees in welding for the first time are: Harbin Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, and Tianjin University. By 1996, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Jilin University of Technology, South China University of Technology, and the Shenyang Institute of Metallurgy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences had also been granted the authority to confer doctoral degrees in welding. Although the vast majority of schools no longer offer undergraduate programs in welding, and there are no more welding programs listed in the graduate admission catalogs, schools or research institutions that previously had such programs are still training graduate students in welding. Over the past five years (publications from 2004), Tsinghua University has trained 17–25 master’s degree candidates and 6–8 doctoral degree candidates each year ； Harbin Institute of Technology trains 17–27 master’s degree students and 3–10 doctoral degree students each year ； Tianjin University trains 5–14 master’s degree candidates and 4–8 doctoral degree candidates each year ； Xi’an Jiaotong University trains 9–16 master’s degree candidates and 3–8 doctoral degree candidates each year, while Jilin University of Technology trains 6–8 master’s degree candidates and 2–4 doctoral degree candidates each year ； South China University of Technology trains 4–7 master’s degree candidates and 2–5 doctoral degree candidates each year.