The joining of clutch carriers to shaft assemblies and to ring gears are typical welding applications in modern 6 and 8-speed automatic transmissions. With the electron beam welding process each weld can be "shaped" with a pattern generator. This is done as needed to achieve the right balance between covering typical tolerances in mass production (where wider welds are more desirable) and keeping the thermal distortion of the components at a minimum (narrowest weld possible).