While bronze was known to be manipulated into swords and armor, the modern age of metal fabrication is thought to have begun around 1,500 BCE with the start of the Iron Age. This is when humans began using smelting processes to turn iron and other metals into weapons, armor, and infrastructure.

Between 1400-1600 CE, technological advances began allowing for more standardization and production, which continued well into the Industrial Era.

Over 50% of products produced require some form of fabrication or welding. Some of those products include your work chair, bicycles, boats, bridges, aircraft, skyscrapers and so much more.

Metal is used extensively in manufacturing industries that produce agricultural machinery, automobiles, trains and railways, airplanes, rockets, and space stations. The most common metals used in the US are iron, aluminum and steel.

The Industrial Revolution changed the world in many ways, one of which was making wrought iron available on a mass scale through a process called puddling.

Puddling, a method of converting pig iron, was invented in 1784 and was widely used throughout the late 19th century. The Bessemer method eventually replaced puddling because it produced steel for less effort, time, and money. Today, wrought iron can be found in objects like a wrought iron fence or wrought iron chair.

Roughly 50% of the earth’s crust is composed of metals and iron is the most abundant element, by mass on the entire planet. It’s estimated that there are about 800 billion tons of iron ore across the globe.