Carbon arc welding (CAW) is a process which produces coalescence of metals by heating them with an arc between a nonconsumable carbon (graphite) electrode and the work-piece. It was the first arc-welding process ever developed but is not used for many applications today, having been replaced by twin-carbon-arc welding and other variations. The purpose of arc welding is to form a bond between separate metals. In carbon-arc welding a carbon electrode is used to produce an electric arc between the electrode and the materials being bonded. This arc produces extreme temperatures in excess of 3,000°C. At this temperature the separate metals form a bond and become welded together.
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CAW could not have been created if not for the discovery of the electric arc by Sir Humphry Davy in 1800, later repeated independently by a Russian physicist Vasily Vladimirovich Petrov in 1802. Petrov studied electric arc and proposed its possible ways of usage, including for welding.
The inventor of carbon-arc welding was another Russian, Nikolay Benardos, who developed this method in 1881 and patented it later under the name Elektrogefest ("Electric Hephaestus").
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