The mechanism of transverse shrinkage for the butt joint weldig of plates is investigated in this paper. It was certified that the compressive plastic strain due to thermal expansion of materials during heating play an important role on the transverse shrinkage. It was also pointed out that the transverse shrinkage has to be treated with the samples of which the shapes are as close to real shapes of welded materials as possible, because the distribution of temperature and relative rigidity of materials during welding have great influence on the transverse shrinkage. The formulas for the calculation of transverse shrinkage were presented and the experiments were carried out in order to verify the formulas. the main results are as follows; 1. For the bead-on-plate welding, the transverse shrinkage in the begining parts of welding is the smallest, the end parts is next and the transverse shrinkage of mid section is the largest. 2. In bead-on-plate welding, the equations presented in this paper concerning transverse shrinkage coincide fairly well with the experimental values generally. 3. Transverse shrinkage increases generally as specific heat input per unit thickness increaes.