News

The last issue of the jointly produced Welding and Cutting journal in its current format will be published this month. The Welding Institute will launch a dedicated publication in 2022, created for our Members by our Members.

We have enjoyed a superb relationship working to produce content alongside both DVS Media and the Institute Soudure over the past 20 years, and have made many great friendships with colleagues along the way.

In that time, we have delivered technical information, historical perspectives on The Welding Institute and information on membership itself, but it was always the content from and about our Members that helped to build the all-important sense of community.

Whether it was recognising the achievements of the engineering community through our annual awards or promoting the next generation of welders through our support for competitions like SkillWeld, we have always sought to showcase the amazing work of our Members around the world.

Of course, our Members have also made important contributions to Welding and Cutting, offering reports on Branch meetings and events that really helped to show the different ways in which our branches operate, while also sharing knowledge and networking.

These reports not only provided an update on Branch events, but would often also prove to be a good source of interesting information, whether that was related to lifeboats, railways and engines, aerospace innovations, subsea corrosion, material properties, or even breaking world speed records!

There have also been articles showing how our Members, and particularly the Younger Members' Committee, reach out to promote STEM topics to schoolchildren and students, helping to ensure there is continued interest in engineering and industry.

We have also paid tribute to many great Members who have sadly passed away over the years, people who have contributed a great deal to The Welding Institute and to engineering in general.

While understandably difficult, we always felt it important to recognise and remember the contributions of these Members, who gave so much back to the engineering community at large and their fellow Members in particular.

As we look back at the reams of fantastic content we are proud to have been a part of over the years with Welding and Cutting, some of you may be wondering what we will do next.

The Welding Institute will launch our own dedicated publication in 2022, created for our Members by our Members. Members have been working for several months on the design, content and production of the new publication. Watch out for more information and details on how you can contribute and access the new look journal.

Finally, it goes without saying that we would like to thank our friends at DVS Media and the Institute Soudure for the work they have put in to help deliver informative and interesting content to our Members and we wish them all the best going forward with Welding and Cutting.

- The Welding Institute Welding & Cutting Editorial Team

Risk is an inherent part of all engineering activities, so it is essential that all engineers and technicians are able to identify, assess, understand and appropriately manage risk. It is also crucial to be able to communicate about risk to others, both professionals and the public.  

To support this, the Engineering Council, the regulatory body for the engineering profession in the UK, has issued updated Guidance on Risk. This guidance is suitable for engineering professionals at all career stages, and across all sectors and specialisms.

The Guidance on Risk describes the role of all those engaged in engineering in dealing with risk, and their responsibilities to society.

The revised Guidance on Risk sets out the key stages of managing risk and emphasises the need to exercise informed judgment and identify what is an acceptable level of risk – the risk appetite.

This Guidance sets out six principles to ensure all engineering professionals integrate understanding of the environment and sustainability of resources into all aspects of their work:

• Apply professional and responsible judgment and take a leadership role
• Adopt a systematic, broad and holistic approach to risk identification, assessment, management and review
• Comply with legislation and codes, but be prepared to suggest or promote further improvements
• Ensure good contextual communication with the others involved
• Ensure that sustainable systems for oversight and scrutiny are in place
• Contribute to public awareness of risk

Alasdair Coates CEng FICE MCIHT CMIOSH, CEO of the Engineering Council said:

“Engineers have a crucial role to play in assessing and managing risk, especially as they frequently work in safety critical areas. This updated Guidance on Risk supports individual engineers and technicians by providing key principles that can be incorporated into their daily practice with engineering teams, inter-disciplinary teams and when communicating risks to the wider public.”

The full Guidance on Risk leaflet, along with a convenient wallet card of the six principles, can be downloaded free from: www.engc.org.uk/risk

The Guidance is reviewed periodically and, following a consultation with the engineering community, this edition replaces and updates the previous Guidance. The Engineering Council also produces guidance on Security, Sustainability and Whistleblowing, in addition to the Statement of Ethical Principals, published jointly with the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng). This Guidance is reviewed regularly and can be found at: www.engc.org.uk/guidance

The Welding Institute’s Branches kicked off their autumn programme of online events in September, with our London Branch delivering the first one.

The London Branch opened the 2021-22 Branch programme of online events on the 9 September with a joint meeting with the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IoM3) titled, ‘Pipelines for Hydrogen: Materials and Welding Issues for New Lines and Re-Use of Existing Lines.’ The event was both held in-person and also live streamed online to a wider audience, with Principal Materials and Welding Engineer at ROSEN, Neil Gallon delivering the talk. London Branch Programme Secretary and Fellow of The Welding Institute, Alan Denney reflected on and highlighted the success of the event, particularly its hybrid nature and therefore ability to reach global audiences. He has created a Hybrid (simultaneous face to face and online events) meeting checklist which he has offered to aid other Branches and is now available for Members to access on our Member's Portal.

The West Midlands Branch were the second to host an event, which focused on, ‘Recognising the Pitfalls that Affect the Testing of Welders’ and was hosted on the 13 September with Director of Weld-Class-Solutions Ltd and Fellow of The Welding Institute, Mark Cozens (CEng FWeldI) delivering the presentation. The talk focused on a number of potential pitfalls that can arise when conducting welder qualification tests (also known as “approval testing” or “welder codings”), which are directly from Mark’s own practical experiences over many years.

The meeting was organised and run by West Midlands Branch Programme Secretary and Chair of The Welding Institute’s Professional Board, Dr Claire Kimpton, with the event gaining positive engagement and feedback from attendees.

The Welding Institute is pleased to hear about the success and positive feedback from both the Branches and event attendees. These events demonstrate how The Welding Institute’s Branches have adapted to deliver events online in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has not only allowed the Branches to continue to share knowledge, but also opens up attendance to an even wider audience.

Find all of our upcoming events here.

The SkillWeld Finalists for WorldSkills UK 2021 have been announced and are headed for the national finals in November.

The talented SkillWeld finalists are:

Competition	First Name	Surname	Organisation
Welding	Joel	Blair	Pembrokeshire College
Welding	Cohen	Lewis	Pembrokeshire College
Welding	Ross	Jones	Pembrokeshire College
Welding	Deriece	Raimann	Pembrokeshire College
Welding	James	King	Rolls Royce
Welding	William	Hunt	Rolls Royce
Welding	Reiss	Killen	North West Regional College
Welding	Michael	Kerr	Wirral College
Welding	Chris	Swales	Grimsby College
Welding	Yasmin	Whale	Wakefield College

The final 10 were decided out of the 27 competitors who submitted their test pieces and include students/apprentices from TWI Industrial Member Company Rolls-Royce, as well as finalists from Grimsby and Pembrokeshire College, who are both members of The Welding Institute’s AWFTE (Association for Welding, Fabrication, Training and Education).

Work is currently underway to organise the national finals, which will be held at Coleg Cambria at their Deeside Campus from Tuesday 16 to Friday 19 November. Coleg Cambria are kindly hosting the three metal trade competitions, which include Skillweld, Construction Metal Work and Sheet Metal Work with the competition being located across two sites.

The Welding Institute wishes all SkillWeld 2021 finalists the best of luck for their WorldSkills UK National Final welding competitions in November!

After publicising some of the incredible artwork displayed in the IIW’s Art Photographic Exhibition, we were delighted to hear from one of our Members, Jaco Koortzen EngTech TechWeldI, who reached out to show some of the incredible work his students have been creating. Jaco has been helping the students, in addition to their plate positional welding programme studies, at TuV Rheinland Saudi Arabia, and he also showed us some of the pieces created by his students from previous organisations.

Jaco Koortzen EngTech TechWeldI is a Technical Welding Trainer at TuV Rheinland Saudi Arabia where he has worked since March 2019. His role currently involves presenting a City and Guilds programme, including SMAW(1>4F, 1>4G), oxy-fuel cutting, layout, hand tools and bench work, and more.

While teaching the welding programmes, Jaco encourages his students to get creative with their welding skills, as he explained, “I've always tried to add something different for trainees that are new to the field. Thus, in the 'extra time' we have for the course, I try to expose them to more. This includes them using their skills to make the ‘artwork’ seen in these images. I enjoy highlighting that there is more to welding than plate and pipe, as per the programme / curriculum, which can add benefit to the training centre, community and self. The projects were always made by using off-cuts of materials, therefore showing that it's not always necessary to buy everything, but start with what is at hand and available.”

You can see images of the welded art and other work provided by Jaco below, including his descriptions and explanations behind their creation:

These first pieces include a Motorcycle, a Pipe Welder, a Pipe Motorcycle Side Stand, Table Tops, Door Handles, a Rock Cow and a Three Block Camel.

 

The next selection of welded pieces were created at a school for deaf and physically disabled children. The school’s facilities had been hired for some training, since it was previously a training centre, and the pieces created included play equipment including a Taxi and Seesaw. In addition, a hard hat was used to make an aid to assist children when typing on the computer and a wheelchair creation was made, which involved attaching a computer mouse to the side of the chair so the user can touch and control the cursor with their cheek, enabling them to type (shown below).

Finally, the images below present the work created at a Boilermakers’ Aid course in a prison, which included SMAW, oxy-fuel welding/brazing and cutting. During the course, the new skills were applied to make items including a portable BBQ, post box, football piggy bank, hose reel, coat rack, dustpan, handbell, and more.

We are pleased to promote these welding applications and demonstrate how they extend the students’ individual skills and knowledge as well as showing the application and ability to address real issues experienced day-to-day by those using them.

We would like to thank Jaco for helping us with this article to promote his students’ wonderful work.

Over the last year we have seen the successful launch of our new online Technical Group events as webinars, amassing over 900 registrations and reaching over 60 countries. Our eight Technical Groups promote presentations and discussions around the latest developments in the technology, standards, practices and standards relevant to their specialist subjects and the needs of industry.

An overview of the events so far:

PRESSURE AND PROCESS PLANT

Welding and Related Standards and their Application in Pressure Equipment - 29-30 October 2020

The debut of this first online Technical Group looked at how standards for pressure equipment are developed, their interdependencies, relationship with PED and the process of harmonisation, particularly in the light of Brexit.

It hosted presentations from industry speakers including Pressure and Process Plant Technical Group Chair, John Marlow, Sperko Engineering Services Inc President, Walter Sperko, NACE International European Area Manager and Technical Advisor, Stuart Bond, Welding Consultant, Gene Mathers, Bygate Manufacturing and Quality Solutions Ltd Consultant, Phil Bygate, TWI Principal Project Leader, Marcello Consonni, Shell K Senior Materials and Corrosion Engineer, Kevin Millican, and TWI Technology Fellow, Isabel Hadley.

More about our Pressure and Process Plant Technical Group.

JOINING PROCESSES

Welding and Repair of High Temperature Plant – 16 March 2021

In this event, we were joined by a panellist of speakers including Joining Processes Technical Group Chair, Gene Mathers, Mark Golding Consultants Ltd Director, Mark Golding, Uniper Materials and Corrosion Technical Head, Scott Lockyer, BAE Systems Welding Engineering Manager, Michael Skyrme, Doosan Babcock Head of Welding Engineering, Neil Bennett, and TWI Principal Project Leader, Marcello Consonni.

The online event looked at the welding and repair of high temperature steels covering topics including the cladding of pressure vessels; welding and weld repair of creep resistant steels, including the P/T91and MarBn steels; welding repair strategies for high temperature plant; orbital welding for repair and replacement, and the welder apprenticeship “Trailblazer” standards for the next generation of welders.

More about our Joining Processes Technical Group.

STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY

Latest Developments in Fitness-for-Service Procedures in BS7910, R6 and ASME/ API579 – 15 April 2021

This event looked at the application of fitness-for-service procedures in different industries worldwide being heavily dominated by three key codes and standards: BS7910, R6, and ASME/ API579. With a focus on all three of these important documents, which had either been revised recently or were in the process of being revised, our panel of speakers delivered presentations highlighting the most significant changes being or having been made. This panel included TWI Technology Fellow, Isabel Hadley, EDF Energy Materials Engineer, Cory Hamelin, Ninth Planet Engineering Limited Consultant, Andrew Cosham, Jacobs Senior Consultant in Materials Science and Structural Integrity, John Sharples, and Valero Mechanical Reliability ASME Fellow Technology Advisor, Benjamin Hantz.

More about our Structural Integrity Technical Group.

MATERIALS

Metallurgical Impact of Minor Elements in Steel Welds – 18 May 2021

This Technical Group event focused on elements in steels that are present in small quantities but whose impact can be highly significant with problems often only coming to light at the stage of weld procedure qualification or, worse still, during construction or service.

The speakers included Materials Technical Group Chair, Dr Peter Boothby, TWI Materials and Structural Integrity Team Manager, Joanna Nicholas, Micro-Met International Ltd Managing Director, Dr Phil Kirkwood, AKD Materials Consulting Ltd Consultant Metallurgist/Welding Engineer, Eur Ing Alan Denney, Liberty Steel Hartlepool Technical Director, Martin Connelly, and Cranfield University Senior Lecturer, Dr Graeme Barritte.

More about our Materials Technical Group.

STRUCTURES AND INFRASTRUCTURES

Structural Steelwork - Specifying the Future – 22 June 2021

With the changes seen this year within steelwork specifications for both building and bridges in the UK, this event reviewed these new specifications with presentations from those involved in drafting the specifications and those who use them, including Structures and Infractures Technical Group Chair, Julian French, BCSA Welding Engineer, Tom Cosgrove, Arup Associate Director, Dominic Munro, Sandberg LLP Welding Engineer, Yohann Guellil, Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd Welding Engineer and Quality Manager, Dean Baker, and William Hare Limited Group Welding Manager, Phil Nicholson.

More about our Structures and Infrastructures Technical Group.

NDT AND CONDITION MONITORING

Enhancing the Inspection Process using Advanced NDT Methods – 6 July 2021

Our most recent online Technical Group event highlighted the benefits of a variety of advanced NDT systems and methods and how they may be used to improve the efficiency of inspections, both during fabrication and in-service.

The speakers included NDT and Condition Monitoring Technical Group Chair, Peter Mudge, Baker Hughs Wygate Technologies Digital Solutions Digital Filed Radiography Senior Sales Operations Manager, Johan Grauls, TWI NDT Team Manager, Channa Nageswaran, TWI NDT Product Development Team Manager, Miles Weston, Eddyfi Technologies Technical Sales Specialist, TWI Training and Examination Services NDT Training Programme Manager, Alex Tsougranis, Larbi Hallal, TWI Training and Examination Services Chief Examiner/Examination and Quality Team Manager, Michal Sherik, and University of Bristol Professor of Dynamics, Professor Paul Wilcox.

More about our NDT and Condition Monitoring Technical Group.

With the move of our Technical Group meetings to online events over the last year, The Welding Institute would like to thank and commend the adaptability demonstrated by all those involved including our Members, guest speakers and the Technical Group Committee for their joint support in making these Technical Group events a success!

More online events are scheduled for the remainder of the year and will be published shortly.

This July saw the 74th IIW Assembly and International Conference held online to negate the uncertainty associated with the various international COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Despite this meaning that there was no chance for people to meet in-person, it did enable more technical experts from around the world to attend and share their ideas and learning.

The IIW returned to their traditions with this year’s event, with a programme enriched with more content, including the International Conference and opening and award ceremonies as well as a closing event.

The 2021 IIW event met the needs of the community with the virtual assembly delivering presentations, discussions, interaction between attendees, sharing of knowledge and the development of documents and best practice, while technology allowed online interaction during sessions to provide an inclusive atmosphere.

The UK was represented by delegates from TWI Ltd, Lincoln Electric, Cambridge Vacuum Engineering and the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Centre/University of Sheffield.

TWI’s involvement was particularly strong, with voting delegates involved in most of the commissions, while TWI Technology Manager and Welding and Cutting Editorial Team member, Geoff Melton also chaired the health and safety commission.

The programme for the 74th IIW Annual Assembly and International Conference was as follows:

7 July: IIW General Assembly and Opening & Awards ceremony

8 July: IIW International Conference

9 July: Preliminary and administrative meetings

12-17 July: Meetings of IIW Technical Working Units (Commissions and Study Groups) and IAB

16 July: Closing Ceremony

19-21 July: Meetings of Administrative Units

Of particular note was the International Conference on the topic of ‘Artificial Intelligence to innovate Welding and Joining.’

This 4-hour conference included a keynote speech and a full set of presentations on the theme as well as a panel discussion where attendees could interact with the experts and presenters.

In addition, the event saw the launch of the IIW’s Welded Art Photographic Exhibition, which has been released digitally and can be seen by following this link.

Our Younger Members’ Committee’s Welding with Chocolate outreach activity was successfully delivered virtually again, this time with the year 3&4 pupils of Bottisham Primary School getting to carry out the fun activity.

Following on from the launch of our digitised welding with chocolate outreach activity, also debuted earlier last month with the pupils of Linton Heights Year 6 class, we are excited to hear that TWI Consultant, Marcello Consonni’s virtual delivery of the course to 82 of Bottisham’s Primary School pupils, last month, was a success and proved popular with all three of the year 3&4 classes.

Whilst Marcello delivered the presentations via video call, introducing the workshop and talking through the engineering principles that the pupils were carrying out, the Bottisham Primary School teachers did an amazing job coordinating the welding with chocolate activities with the students in class.

We received feedback from the teachers on behalf of each of the three classes that participated:

“Grazie Marcello!

That was fantastic! The children had great fun!

Your presentation was brilliant too!

Thank so much for putting this experiment together for us!”

- Bottisham Primary School - Birch Class

“Thanks Marcello,

That was fantastic!”

- Bottisham Primary School - Cedar Class

“Thank you so much for all your input and hard work- the children learnt so much and had lots of fun!”

- Bottisham Primary School - Elm Class

Our newly digitised Welding with Chocolate workshop resource packs have been piloted this month with the students of Linton Heights Year 6 class being the first to test them out!

The 60 year 6 students completed our popular Welding with Chocolate outreach activity which uses chocolate to demonstrate the principles of welding and structural integrity through completion of engineering tasks that mirror the process of welding, including a destructive testing activity.

The introduction of these digital resources are currently being piloted to innovate the process of The Welding Institute’s Younger Members’ Committee delivering their outreach activities, increasing their reach and therefore enabling more students to have the opportunity to participate in these important, fun and engaging early engineering principle based activities. Speaking on the pilot of this new delivery system, chair of our Younger Members’ Committee, Catherine Leahy (Student AWeldI) emphasised the importance of this opportunity, offering the following statement:

“Working with Cambridge LaunchPad to produce the digitised version of our very popular welding with chocolate has been a great way to stay in touch with outreach activities during the pandemic. Even once the pandemic is over, these resource packs will be available for delivery all across the UK, enabling the YMC to reach schools and colleges much further than we usually would. I’m so glad to hear the pilot got the Year 6 students excited and interested in STEM, whilst learning something new about welding. Looking forward to launching the full resource pack in the coming months!”

What did the students think?

Reporting back to our committee on the success of the workshop, Linton Heights Year 6 teacher sent over images and feedback from some of the pupils:

“It was a lot of fun working with chocolate and we would definitely like to do this again (provided we can eat the chocolate!) - Arlo and Sophie Y6”

We would also like to give a special shout-out to all of the amazing pupils who participated and their creative team names which included, The Blue Pandas, The Sausage Dogs!, THE TEAM, The PengWin Team, Chocolate Waffles and Pancakes, Hot Chocolate, Team Winning Bridge and The Choco Warriors.

The Women’s Engineering Society will be hosting its annual celebration of International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) as an online event on the 23 of June 2021.

The webinar will also announce the 2021 Top 50 Women in Engineering Awards on this year's theme of ‘Engineering Heroes,’ profiling the best, brightest and bravest women in engineering today. The event also boasts an exciting line-up of speakers from industry including:

Major Angela Laycock - Royal Engineers

Jane Priston - Founder and Director of the Amy Johnson Project

Janette Marx - Chief Executive Officer, Airswift

Dawn Childs - President, Women's Engineering Society

More about the speakers and agenda. 

The online event will be taking place Wednesday 23 June from 12:00 PM (BST).

Full event and registration details