Selection of welding process to fabricate cruciform joints using analytic hierarchic process based on qualitative factors

Selection of a welding process is an unstructured decision problem involving multiple attributes (factors). To provide decision support for the welding engineer, an all encompassing analysis of multiple attributes is necessary. The present paper reports a new procedure using an analytic hierarchic process for the selection of a welding process to fabricate cruciform joints of ASTM 517 'F' grade steels, based on the qualitative factors of the welding processes, when the quantitative factors appear to be equal.