A roadmap for selection of metal welding process: a review and proposals

Abstract

AbstractThis study aims to report the progress and latest status of the “selection of welding process” problem in terms of research, developments, and applications. In addition, it introduces guidelines to serve constructing future expert systems for the problem. Therefore, it presents an extensive literature review on the approaches used to model and solve the problem over 36 years. Hence, several findings and proposed insights are reported. The paper recommends some existing approaches based on their performance in general and literature reporting in addition to simple statistics. A structure for prospected expert systems is proposed. The paper collected and rearranged decision criteria/sub-criteria of the problem, in a manageable form, to construct a modifiable hierarchical scheme. Additional criteria were merged based on recent trends in manufacturing system evaluation such as sustainability and performability. Finally, an agenda is introduced to recognize research opportunities in this area based on prospected industrial and business revolutions.