Traditional arc welding works well when you can access a joint from both sides and grind away any excess metal. But for the non-standard junctions typical of sculptural steelwork, that simply isn’t possible. Conventional brazing – using a lower-melting-point filler metal to bond parts without fully melting them – requires a precise, narrow gap between surfaces, something almost impossible to guarantee across the many angles found in artwork.

Now, Yevgenia Chvertko and her colleagues at the National Technical University of Ukraine and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine have developed a technique that blends welding and brazing – and the results are striking both aesthetically and mechanically.

The team’s solution uses a tungsten inert gas arc to heat the steel rod ends until small pools of molten metal form, then introduce a copper-silicon filler wire into those pools. The liquid solder mixes with the molten steel, flows into the gap, and crystallises into a joint that is mechanically robust and visually tidy – with minimal clean-up required.

The team’s tests showed that joints made with their new technique withstood tensile forces of up to 34.3 kilonewtons – around 23% stronger than those produced by conventional methods. The mixing of liquid steel and bronze solder creates a composite structure reinforced with steel fibres, which accounts for much of the strength gain.

The technology has already proven itself in the real world. Minakov’s completed sculpture was produced entirely using the new method and selected for the International Institute of Welding’s 2023 Digital Collection Welded Art Photographic Exhibition. For Chvertko and her collaborators, art and engineering have rarely been so closely entwined!