What does a maintenance welder do?

A Maintenance Welder diagnoses and repairs a variety of metal work including construction vehicles and equipment. They cut, fit, and weld metal using gas and electric welding equipment.
Maintenance welder responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real maintenance welder resumes:
- Manage and run production parts through the brake.
- Experience in welding pressure tanks, stainless pipes and aluminum tanks using GMAW, FCAW, GTAW.
- Perform rework utilizing SMAW and FCAW welding skills.
- Perform TIG welding of stainless pipe and equipment repairs.
- Certify students in weld processes SMAW, GMAW, GTAW.OAW, and both ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
- Install duct work, blowers, dampers, flow boxes, and the structure the components set on.
- Repair TIG weld hot water tanks.
- Weld round and long seam repairs with FCAW welding process
- Replace and weld boiler-cooling tubes using (GTAW) process.
- Assist main instructor in teaching sound fundamentals of the GTAW process.
- Work with different shop tools like CNC table and metal shear.
- Perform basic operations of forklifts, overhead cranes, and hoists.
- Conduct trial runs before welding, soldering, or brazing and make necessary adjustments to equipment.
- Fabricate and weld augers, auger legs, elevator chutes, catwalks, platforms and ladders.
- Install motors, reducers, drying bins, grain legs, storage bids, and grain augers.
Maintenance welder skills and personality traits
We calculated that 10% of Maintenance Welders are proficient in MIG, Arc Welding, and Hand Tools. They’re also known for soft skills such as Detail oriented, Manual dexterity, and Physical strength.
We break down the percentage of Maintenance Welders that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- MIG, 10%
Work on frames production line as robotic welding operator* Operate Robotic MIG Welder and other hand held tools as required.
- Arc Welding, 8%
Annex Chief Instructor for Shielded Metal Arc Welding Section within the Weapons/Metalworking Services Division at the U.S. Army Ordnance School.
- Hand Tools, 7%
Adjust functional parts of devices or control instruments, using hand tools, levels, plumb bobs, or straight edges.
- GMAW, 7%
Instruct, Demonstrate, and Assist students taking any of the three major electrical processes, GMAW, SMAW, and GTAW
- SMAW, 6%
Certify residents with two AWS welding certificates, MGAW and SMAW
- GTAW, 5%
Use GTAW welding process according to AWS Specifications.
"mig," "arc welding," and "hand tools" are among the most common skills that maintenance welders use at work. You can find even more maintenance welder responsibilities below, including:
Detail oriented. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a maintenance welder to have is detail oriented. Their role and responsibilities require that "welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers perform precision work, often with straight edges." Maintenance welders often use detail oriented in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "detailed plant maintenance on a daily basis. "
Manual dexterity. Another essential skill to perform maintenance welder duties is manual dexterity. Maintenance welders responsibilities require that "welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers must have a steady hand to hold a torch in place." Maintenance welders also use manual dexterity in their role according to a real resume snippet: "set up and operated mig welding machine myself and weld manually. "
Physical strength. This is an important skill for maintenance welders to perform their duties. For an example of how maintenance welder responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers must be able to lift heavy pieces of metal and move welding or cutting equipment." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a maintenance welder: "assembled and maintained physical structures, using hand tools or power tools. ".
The three companies that hire the most maintenance welders are:
- Universal Technical Institute15 maintenance welders jobs
- State of Georgia: Teachers Retirement System of Georgia9 maintenance welders jobs
- Pico de Gallo
7 maintenance welders jobs
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Maintenance welder vs. Ship fitter
Ship fitters are civilian or enlisted people who work on materials like high yield strength steel and high-tensile steel. These people fabricate, assemble, and build structural parts of ships. They are the ones who coordinate a fixed tank working on ships and submarines, as well as the sonar dome work. They serve as part of a team composing shipbuilders. It is their duty to lead and assist in welding copper, PVC, flange piping, and steel. They should also refurbish the older rigs with advanced technologies.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between maintenance welders and ship fitter. For instance, maintenance welder responsibilities require skills such as "gtaw," "safety procedures," "preventative maintenance," and "gearboxes." Whereas a ship fitter is skilled in "tack-weld," "math," "tape measure," and "cranes." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Ship fitters tend to make the most money working in the technology industry, where they earn an average salary of $54,661. In contrast, maintenance welders make the biggest average salary, $45,441, in the automotive industry.ship fitters tend to reach similar levels of education than maintenance welders. In fact, ship fitters are 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Maintenance welder vs. Welder-machine operator
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that maintenance welder responsibilities requires skills like "mig," "hand tools," "preventative maintenance," and "gearboxes." But a welder-machine operator might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "tape measure," "tack," "machine operation," and "punch press."
Welder-machine operators earn a lower average salary than maintenance welders. But welder-machine operators earn the highest pay in the technology industry, with an average salary of $54,740. Additionally, maintenance welders earn the highest salaries in the automotive with average pay of $45,441 annually.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Welder-machine operators tend to reach similar levels of education than maintenance welders. In fact, they're 1.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Maintenance welder vs. Welder first class
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from maintenance welder resumes include skills like "mig," "hand tools," "safety procedures," and "aluminum," whereas a welder first class is more likely to list skills in "air arc," "tack," "aluminum mig," and "fillet. "
When it comes to education, welders first class tend to earn similar degree levels compared to maintenance welders. In fact, they're 2.0% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.3% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Maintenance welder vs. Welder-assembler
Types of maintenance welder
Updated January 8, 2025











