Autogenous welding is one way of performing fusion welding without the application of external filler material. It is to be noted that autogenous welding is not a particular type of welding process like MMAW, TIG, GMAW, etc.; instead, it is one of the three different ways or modes of doing fusion welding. Note that solid state welding processes are usually autogenous as they don’t use any filler during welding.

Tungsten Inter Gas (TIG) and oxy-fuel welding processes can be performed in autogenous mode/way. Various advanced welding processes, such as Plasma Arc Welding (PAW), Laser Beam Welding (LBW), Electron Beam Welding (EBW), etc. are mostly autogenous.

There are some fusion welding processes which cannot be performed in autogenous way. For example, Manual Metal Arc Welding (MMAW), Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW), Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW), etc. always use consumable filler material and thus cannot be performed in autogenous way.

Advantages of autogenous welding

Fusion welding of thin sheets is possible only in autogenous way.
No extra cost for filler material.
Weld appearance is good (dressing purpose)
Processes can be easily automated.
No post-grinding is required to remove reinforced parts.

Disadvantages of autogenous welding

Only butt joint is possible and that too maintaining no root gap between parent parts.
Thickness of the plates is also limited to only 2 – 3mm in order to obtain a sound welding.
Strength of the joint is not good—it is less than the strength of base plates (Nitrogen blow-out by heating and degraded mechanical properties, e.g. Two-phase metal Duplex stainless steel).
As molten metal from base plates is used to fill the narrow gap between plates (root gap), welded part becomes slightly weaker (5 – 20% weak).
These joints are crack-sensitive due to lack of molten metal supply during solidification.
Cannot be applied for joining more than two parts as the later requires substantial amount of filler material.
No edge preparation is allowed, i.e., only square edge.
Complete removal of any oil, rust or scale is essential to obtain sound weld.