The first evidence of welding dates back to the Bronze Age. The earliest examples of soldering discovered to date are soldered gold boxes belonging to civilizations that flourished during the Bronze Age. There is evidence that even the Egyptians developed a form of welding. Many of their iron tools were made by welding. During the Middle Ages, a group of blacksmiths came to the forefront, making tools, weapons, and other necessities. Blacksmiths in the Middle Ages welded different types of iron tools by hammering. Welding methods remained more or less unchanged until the 19th century. Where welding methods began to resemble conventional welding processes through innovations made through scientific experiments (Go Welding: History of Welding 1). Conventional welding is most easily explained by arc welding processes. Some arc welding processes are TIG welding, stick welding (SMAW), and MIG welding. TIG stands for Tungsten Inert Gas Welding, this means that using tungsten as the electrode and an inert gas, which is usually argon, the weld is made by creating an arc between the workpiece and the tungsten electrode. SMAW or stick welding uses a stick electrode held in a clamp surrounded by a powdered solder substance. Mig welding uses a machine that contains a wire feeder inside, the wire feeder feeds the wire electrode through a tube to a gun which slowly sends the wire along with a constant stream of inert gas. These and other processes classified as conventional welding processes are the best processes for welding jobs because they are more cost effective, more...... middle of paper ......Web. April 27, 2014. Robert, Guillaume. “The Top 5 Challenges of Robotic Welding Programming.” Robotiq.com. Robot Iq, February 8, 2013. Web. March 5, 2014."The SMAW Process (Part 2)." Everlastgenerators.com. Everlast generators, and Web. March 21, 2014. "Welding Process, Welding Defects, Defects and Discontinuities for NDT Technicians, Part 3." Hera.org. Hera, and Web. March 15, 2014. .Xie, J. “Weld Morphology and Thermal Modeling in Dual Beam Laser Welding.” Was.org. American Welding Society, nd Web. March 24. 2014. .