American Welding Society

The American Welding Society (AWS) was founded in 1919 as a non-profit organization to advance the science, technology and application of welding and allied joining and cutting processes, including brazing, soldering and thermal spraying. Headquartered in Doral, Florida, and led by a volunteer organization of officers and directors, AWS serves over 73,000 members worldwide and is composed of 22 Districts with 250 Sections and student chapters. The roots of the American Welding Society stretch back to World War I, when the sudden demands of swiftly producing military equipment brought about the need for standardization of the manufacturing industry. An evolving metal joining process, welding, suddenly became very necessary to enhance the war effort. To ensure that industry took advantage of this technology, President Woodrow Wilson called upon a Harvard professor, Comfort A. Adams, to chair the Welding Committee of the Emergency Fleet Corp. Welding performed well in the war effort and its success motivated Adams in 1919 to bring together industry leaders for the purpose of merging the Welding Committee of the Emergency Fleet Corp. and the National Welding Council into a new organization, the purpose of which was to provide dependable and objective information on the developing technology of welding. On March 28, 1919, the American Welding Society was born for that purpose, with Adams serving as its first President. That first year the Society grew to 217 members; introduced the Journal of the American Welding Society, a technical publication with a life of one issue, but the precursor of the Welding Journal; found a home in the Engineering Societies Building in New York City; and established the foundation of the committee system for the production of its operating procedures and industry standards on welding. In 1920, the first local Section was organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By 1922, the American Welding Society had held its first Annual Meeting.