The Welding Institute’s Branch events have moved online over the past six months with our Branches having successfully continued to provide engaging and interesting presenters and presentations for our Members. We have had speakers from leading industry companies and academia delivering presentations on a broad range of subjects and topics. We have picked out a few examples of these webinars from over these past 6 months to demonstrate how successful our Branches and Branch Volunteers have been.

The Welding Institute’s Branches have made the most of their local networks to arrange excellent speakers from leading industry companies. One example includes a recent East Midlands Branch webinar titled, ‘Fracture Mechanics and Related Control in Manufacturing,’ which was presented by Adrian Walker, an ex-Rolls-Royce Material Engineer. The event also received the following feedback from an attendee describing the webinar as, ‘a first class event and very professionally organised. Adrian's presentation was splendidly given and most appreciated by me,’ The Welding Institute is hoping to re-run this talk in 2021. Our Sheffield Branch also organised for guest speaker and Business Development Manager at ESAB Specialty Alloys, Peter Stones (MWeldI, IEng) to deliver a talk on, ‘Nickel Based Filler Metals,’ which was extremely popular, attracting over 150 registrants. This talk will also be re-run in the New Year. Peter’s involvement with The Welding Institute also extends much further than his support through speaking at Branch events as he is an active committee member of the Sheffield Branch and also a Professional Review Interviewer for The Welding Institute. Our Eastern Counties Branch arranged guest speaker Daniel Pollard, superintendent at the Denver Complex in Norfolk for the Environment Agency, to deliver a talk about the Denver Sluice Complex and its role in water management.

Through utilising The Welding Institute’s unique relationship with TWI Ltd, our Branches have organised speakers and presentations from TWI’s own industry experts across its multi-industry sectors and expertise. Talks have included webinars that look at new technological and industrial advancements, for example, TWI Principal Project Leader and inventor of ‘CoreFlow,’ Joao Ganda spoke in detail about CoreFlow and its role as a new and highly disruptive, sub-surface machining technique. The Teesside Branch and Scottish Branch Members also enjoyed a presentation focusing on the energy sector where Welding Institute Fellow and TWI Sector Manager for Power and New Energy, Chris Punshon, delivered a talk on, ‘Fabrication Challenges and New Developments in the Energy Sector.’

Several Branches have worked actively with other organisations and Institutes to combine their efforts. The Welding Institute’s North Scottish Branch hosted a global joint event with the Institute of Corrosion where London Branch Chair and Welding Institute Fellow, Alan Denney delivered a presentation titled, ‘High Tensile Steel Bolts and Nuts – Hydrogen Embrittlement and Failure in Corrosive Environments,’ attracting over 600 registrants!

Engaging and addressing the next generation of engineers has also been an important topic for our Branch events. Namely, this was demonstrated by our Eastern Counties Branch which delivered a webinar titled, ‘Focusing on the Next Generation,’ where Dr Muhammad Shaheer (CEng MWeldI), a Mechanical Engineer at Bespak Limited, delivered the interesting talk which focused heavily on ways in which we can all support and encourage the next generation through volunteering, ambassador programmes, outreach activities, and mentoring.

The Welding Institute would like to acknowledge and thank all those involved with the organisation of these Branch events and therefore supporting their continuation through our current circumstances and we would also like to thank all the volunteers who spoke and those who have attended and contributed.