Underwater welding

Wet welding

Underwater welding directly exposes the diver and electrode to the water and surrounding elements. Divers usually use around 300–400 amps of direct current to power their electrode, and they weld using varied forms of arc welding. This practice commonly uses a variation of shielded metal arc welding, which uses an electrode that is waterproof. Other processes that are used include flux-cored arc welding and friction welding. In each of these cases, the welding power supply is connected to the welding equipment through cables and hoses. The process is generally limited to low carbon equivalentsteels, especially at greater depths, because of hydrogen-caused cracking.