History of The Welding Institute

This year, The Welding Institute celebrated one hundred years since it was established in 1923 as ‘The Institution of Welding Engineers.’

The formation as a professional engineering institution, supporting the development of Members in the fields of welding, joining and allied technologies, has enabled The Institute to act as a voice for industry, providing authoritative guidance to bodies including the British Standards Institution, the Engineering Council, and the UK government.

Licensed by the Engineering Council, The Welding Institute is an independent body promoting and advancing the welding, joining and allied technologies. The Institute is also licensed by the Engineering Council to assess Professional Members in becoming professionally registered as Chartered Engineers (CEng), Incorporated Engineers (IEng) or Engineering Technicians (EngTech).

 

Annual Dinner

This year saw several events to celebrate our 100^th anniversary, including a special centenary dinner at King’s College in Cambridge. The evening was a celebration of The Institute and was an excellent way to meet contacts from our wide Industrial and Professional Memberships, our academic partners and TWI's own staff. 123 people attended the event, including 50 people from The Welding Institute, who all got to hear speeches from Baroness Brown and The Welding Institute CEO Dr Aamir Khalid.

Riverboat Jazz Cruise

Another event which took place during our centenary year was The Riverboat Jazz Cruise, which took place on Sunday, 19November 2023. The Welding Institute celebrated the 100^th anniversary of the Institute of Welding Engineers with a riverboat cruise on the Thames, organised by the London and Kent Branches.

80 Professional Members, family members and guests attended, including TWI Research Director, Paul Woollin, TWI Group Manager for Marketing, Mike Emmett, London Branch Programme Secretary, Alan Denney and London Branch President, Eric Martin, who each gave a speech whilst cruising along the river.

IACS Ltd and IABCO (I.A Barnes and Company) sponsored the event, with guests boarding the boat, The Golden Salamander, and cruising along the Thames from Westminster to Tower Bridge. The guests were treated to prosecco/fruit juice upon arrival, which was then followed by a two-course buffet meal and live music from a three-piece jazz band.

Welding Institute Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Charter Launched

On 20 October 2023, Members of The Welding Institute attended the launch of the new Charter for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion. The event was hosted by Dr Claire Kimpton (Chair of Professional Board) and, in the presence of the President Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, Members showed their support for an open and all-inclusive organisation that aims to provide equality of opportunity to all, irrespective of grade or experience. Our President, committee and working group chairs signed a specially created charter document, which sets out and outlines our commitment.

Member Case Studies

Over the year, The Welding Institute has been publishing case studies from exceptional individuals who have volunteered for the Institute and those who are long serving Members from the UK and overseas.

Siew Yap Wong is one of our longest serving overseas Members. He joined The Welding Institute in 1970 as a Member and is still a Member to this day. When Siew Yap Wong became a Member of The Welding Institute he was working as a Welding Researcher Engineer at the British Steel Corporation. Since retirement, he has conducted a course on materials and their behaviours on the IIW (International Institute of Welding) at TWI Malaysia.

Another case study published this year was about long serving Member, Alan Gifford, who joined The Welding Institute in 1958, having started working in a small chemical factory laboratory, where he did all of his studies as day release and evening studies. After Alan retired, he continued to be a Member of CEN Committee for water tube boilers. Alan was always associated with both the East Midlands Branch and at TWI, where he was Chair of the former and a Member of TWI’s Council.

We also heard from Aaron Kirkbride, a Welding Engineer with Rolls-Royce Submarines. He became an associate student (AWeldI) Member of The Welding Institute in 2013 because one of his supervisors at the time was Chair at their local Branch. Aaron ended up becoming a Professional Member (MWeldI) once he became professionally registered and places a big emphasis on volunteering for The Welding Institute. He is a Committee Member and Young Members representative for the East Midlands Branch and was previously a Committee Member and the Secretary for the South-West Branch. Aaron also mentors colleagues applying for Membership, playing a crucial role within volunteering in The Welding Institute.

We also published a case study about Sophie Dawson EngTech TechWeldI, who is a Nuclear Welding Inspector (Project Inspector) at Sellafield Ltd. She chose to pursue an NWIT apprenticeship, as well as CSWIP 3.0 and PCNs Level 2 in DPI, MPI and UT NDT testing techniques. To complete her NWIT apprenticeship with Sellafield Ltd, Sophie needed to join The Welding Institute, following an interview with a TWI panel, which Sophie completed successfully.

Over the year we heard from many of our Members including some of our longest serving Members overseas as well as in the UK, and volunteers, students and those that are professionally registered. We would like to thank all those that contributed and those that read our case studies celebrating the individuals that make The Welding Institute.

The Welding Institute had a great year celebrating its 100^th Anniversary, we are extremely grateful to everyone who has made this year a success and for the continuous support - we look forward to the future ahead.