Welding is the most important joining technique in the metalworking sector; there are about 730,000 full time and 5.5 million welding related jobs in Europe. Nevertheless, welding has a great impact on health as it is physically high demanding leading to a high percentage of sick leave. As this high sick leave costs are threatening the financial position of SMEs, the ECONWELD project aims at contributing to the: Reduction of welding costs and improvement of production Through the development of guidelines for (flexible) mechanization of welding. Reduction of sick leave of welders Through the development of new solutions to improve the work conditions (ergonomics and work flow). Reduction of exposure to welding fumes Through the development of solutions to reduce welding fumes at the source: new prototypes taking into consideration better ergonomics and fume extraction capabilities. Most of the existing cost calculations are based on experience. Therefore the basis for cost estimates normally are cost records, whether these are based on statistical or individual experience. SMEs however often use some key figures to estimate or calculate their welding cost like welding cost per meter or welding cost per kg deposited weld metal. These key figures are different for each SME based on the type of products (and quality of the products) they make. It is foreseen that each SME will select products, which will be welded in the traditional way (like they do it now) and at the same time as a comparison by using the improvements developed in this project like higher welding speeds and welding automatically. These developments will be the basis to VIWELD, the ECONWELD Predictive Welding Tool. Also the amount of welding fumes is complex and related to factors like the welding process, current, shielding gas, material to be welded, consumables etc. This means only comparisons for specific situations can be made. In the project specific situations (valid for a range of products) comparisons will be made before and after improvements/developments (source solutions, extraction and torch improvements) have become available in the project. It is obvious that the complexity of the above mentioned technological and social objectives can only be attained by an integrated approach of the different topics involved. No SME or manufacturer and even RTD organisation is able to solve the faced problems by its own. That is why an integrated approach is needed.