I have to jump in on this. I have done a great deal of Tig welding. I had to go to school to learn to do it for a year. I have never welded on anything at all related to aerospace or autosports. Tig is much more common than you might think. It is in fact by far the easiest method of welding to learn. I have had to learn all three, mig, tig, and arc welding. One of my training requirements was two years of welding school. There are machines that can be programmed to mig weld or arc weld. I cannot concieve of a machine that could be programmed to tig weld. There is too much human judgement required. When I say machine, I am talking about robots, and I have seen plenty of them in car plants and other places that have automated welding processes. I don't believe a machine will be tig welding in the near future. I especially don't think a machine will be tig welding any types of bicycle frames in the future. If one ever does, I would certainly like to see it done. Best -