Suppliers "and organizations or institutions that provide related support services (including research institutes, schools, training institutions, testing institutions, laboratories, equipment distributors, etc.).

Welding, as a universal common technology, is used as a key processing technique by a considerable number of enterprises in the manufacturing industry. Welding directly determines the quality of its products. These enterprises constitute the main body of welding technology applications.

According to the classification method of industries in China, these enterprises are widely distributed in industries such as boilers, pressure vessels, power generation equipment, nuclear facilities, petrochemicals, pipelines, metallurgy, mining, railways, automobiles, shipbuilding, port facilities, aerospace, construction, agricultural machinery, water conservancy facilities, engineering machinery, machine manufacturing, medical equipment, precision instruments, and electronics. These enterprises have a profound impact, wide-ranging involvement, and play a crucial role in the construction of China's industrial economy. According to incomplete statistics, there are over 7000 enterprises that use welding as their main processing technology (or welding has a critical impact on their product quality).

There are thousands of welding equipment manufacturing enterprises in our country. The number of welding equipment production enterprises is about 900, and the number of welding material production enterprises is over 500. In addition, there are hundreds of enterprises in China engaged in the production and manufacturing of welding auxiliary equipment, supporting tools, cutting equipment, and related safety protection products. These enterprises constitute the main body of China's welding equipment supply industry.

The welding industry in our country also includes public institutions that provide various technical support and services for the above-mentioned two types of enterprises. Although these institutions are few in number (only a few dozen), they have a significant impact on the industry, mainly engaged in industry management, research and development, education, training, certification, standardization, information consulting, and services related to welding and material connections. These public institutions include research institutes, universities, vocational schools, training bases, industry management, and service departments.

The statistical results show that in 2002, the number of employed people in China's secondary industry exceeded 160 million, with over 80 million in the manufacturing industry. In the United States, the number of welding jobs exceeded 2 million in 1996, accounting for over 10% of the total manufacturing workforce in the country. Considering that the industrial output value of the manufacturing industry in the United States is 4-5 times that of China, and the per capita labor productivity is 25 times that of China, as well as factors related to the welding productivity levels of China and the United States, even if estimated conservatively, the current employment in China's welding industry should be around 10 million people.

It may be difficult to quantitatively evaluate the current situation of China's welding industry as a whole, but the production of welding materials in various countries can to some extent reflect the scale of China's welding industry. The statistical results of welding material data in 2002 showed that the total production of welding materials in China had climbed to 1.449 million tons, which was equivalent to the sum of the United States, Japan, and Europe. The position of China as the world's largest welding country is evident.