Welding fume contains a wide range of hazardous substances. Therefore, welders are exposed to a severe risk of both acute and chronic respiratory diseases. Therefore, the aim of this master thesis was the investigation of methods to reduce welding fume. In welding experiments with stick electrodes and flux-cored wires (both of type 316L) inside a welding fume chamber constructed according to the standard DIN EN ISO 15011-1:2009 it was found that the welding current and the arc voltage as well as the flow rate and the composition of the shielding gas in case gas metal arc welding have a significant impact on the fume formation rate (FFR). Furthermore, FFR-values of prototype stick electrodes (type 316L) with Li-based water glass were measured. Compared to a standard type 316L stick electrode with water glass based on Na and K, a reduction of FFR up to 52 % was recorded. In addition, the fume collected on filters contained up to 96 % less hexavalent chromium (CrVI) in comparison to the reference. Nevertheless, higher amounts of Fe, Mn and Ni were measured. The weld metal of the prototype stick electrodes achieved to a large extent similar results compared to the reference electrode during X-ray testing, chemical analysis, mechanical testing (tensile test, Charpy impact test and macro-hardness test) and corrosion testing. Nonetheless toughness of the prototype electrode’s weld metal was significantly lower compared to the one of the reference stick electrode, which was presumably caused by the lower level of non-metallic inclusions within the weld metals of the prototypes. Moreover, in metallographic experiments it was shown that the prototype stick electrodes resulted in a higher penetration of the weld metal due to a sharper arc.