WELD 121 Practice Test

GTAW refers to a welding method that uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode to create an arc, with shielding gas protecting the weld area. The exact expansion of the acronym is Gas Tungsten Arc Welding. This process is also commonly known as TIG welding, which is the same method. The option that describes Shielded Metal Arc Welding points to a different process that uses a consumable electrode and flux, so it doesn’t fit GTAW. While you might see a hyphenated form like Gas-Tungsten Arc Welding, the standard, most widely used expansion is Gas Tungsten Arc Welding.