News

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

City & Guilds have been awarded, in partnership with EAL, the authority to be the delivery partner for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and develop the new T-level Technical Qualifications in Engineering and Manufacturing. The development of these new Technical Qualifications is currently underway, with the first teaching of these qualifications set to take place from September 2022.

The three Technical Qualifications they are developing include:

City & Guilds and EAL are currently looking for employers to review the developed content and ensure that it is fit for purpose, equipping learners with all of the skills and knowledge they will require to be a valuable member of your workforce.

What are T-Levels?

T-levels are new courses which follow on from GCSEs and are equivalent to 3 A-levels. They are two-year courses, which were first launched in September 2020, and have been developed in collaboration with employers and providers to ensure their content meets the needs of industry and prepares learners for work, further training, or further study.

They provide learners with a combination of both classroom learning and ‘on-the-job’ experience during an industry placement of at least 315 hours (which equates to approximately 45 days). T-level courses are also based on the same standards as apprenticeships and are therefore approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and Ofqual.

Further information...

Employer Involvement

In preparation for the delivery of the new T-levels to begin in September 2022, City & Guilds and EAL are collaborating with employers to develop the qualifications and are looking for your input. There is an opportunity to get involved in two areas, including:

Get Involved

City & Guilds and EAL are hosting a webinar titled ‘T-Levels - Engineering New Employer Event’ on Thursday 24 June 2020 9:30 am (BST), which will provide an introduction to T-levels aimed at employers.

Full event and registration details 

The Welding Institute hosted a successful Continuing Professional Development (CPD) webinar last week, reaching a global audience of professionals looking to further their knowledge and understanding of the importance of CPD.

Event Overview

The informative webinar, which was led by our Membership Team and guest speaker Martin Boyd (Acting Vice-Chair of Membership Committee and Vice-Chair for East Midlands Branch), covered a range of topics including:

Speaking on the event, our Membership and Registration Team Manager, Lotte Quivst-Larkins, said:

“The Membership Team would like to thank everyone who joined our CPD webinar on Wednesday 12 May as well as thank our guest speaker, Martin Boyd, for this great contribution to the event. CPD is a major element of Institute membership and we do hope that our attendees went away with an improved understanding of the importance of planning and recording their CPD as well as some ideas on how to go about doing this. Hopefully, some of our Members' questions about being picked for a CPD audit will also have been addressed. The Membership Team is always available for further guidance on this, so please feel free to contact us at any time.”

Our Members can now find the webinar recording on our Members Portal here.

Not a Member?

Join The Welding Institute today and become part of a network of likeminded individuals. Find out more about Membership and how you can join here.

The Welding Institute and The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education are working together to encourage employers to help shape the future training of welding apprentices by joining the employer ‘trailblazer’ group that will be responsible for reviewing the level 2 general welder apprenticeship.

As the leading professional engineering institution for the registration of welding and joining personnel, The Welding Institute advocates the need for employer support while developing the future training of welding apprentices.

With a high demand for this employer support across industry, our Professional Membership and Accreditation Manager, Lois Appleyard has offered the following statement:

“It’s vital that we ensure this apprenticeship continues to meet all the latest skills needs and regulations. As a trailblazer, you can play an important role with helping apprentices get the most from their training and supporting them onto long and successful careers.”

Deputy Director for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, Jonathan Mitchell, also explained:

“General welding is highly valued right across industry. It’s so important that apprentices learn all the right knowledge, skills and behaviours and we rely on our trailblazer employers to tell us what they should be. This is a wonderful opportunity to help shape future training.”

To find out more about the type of employers we need and the requirements expected through the process, check out The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education press release and the FE News - Further Education College & Training Provider News Channel website.

The Welding Institute would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Matt Haslett on recently being awarded Fellow status of The Welding Institute.

Matt (FWeldI CEng) has been a Member of The Welding Institute since 2012 and has been closely involved with many aspects of the Institute and our Members, including seven years volunteering as the chair of our Younger Members’ Committee (YMC).

We interviewed Matt about his achievement and also took the opportunity to find out a bit more about his career and experience within the engineering industry.

Educational Background:

Matt studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cambridge (Churchill College) from 2004 to 2008 and is currently studying part-time for an Executive MBA as an advanced apprentice with De Montfort University, Leicester.

Career Background:

“Before I went to university I worked for a year as a nuclear engineer. My first job after university was as a marine engineering officer in the Royal Navy before working as an operational analyst for the MOD. I moved back into engineering when I joined TWI in 2012. My current role is as a Principal Project Leader, working on and managing various project for our clients. My main areas of expertise include fracture mechanics, mechanical testing (small-scale, full-scale and bespoke) and engineering critical assessment. I also organise and lecture on some of TWI’s training courses (welding diploma and structural integrity assessment) and am heavily involved in educational outreach for TWI and The Welding Institute.”

Why did you choose a career in engineering?

“My dad was a mechanical engineer and I also got involved in a young engineers’ club at school. I enjoy problem solving and variety in my work, and engineering gives me both of these.”

Matts’ experience as Chair of the Younger Members’ Committee

As already highlighted, Matt chaired the Younger Members’ Committee for 7 years and he explained a bit about what this involved, including his reasons and ambitions behind taking on the role.

Why did you initially choose to undertake the role of Chair?

“I have a passion for education outreach. These types of activities got me interested in engineering while I was at school and I wanted to continue to promote STEM subjects in schools and ‘give something back.’ The YMC chair role was the ideal opportunity to push this agenda.”

What were your main responsibilities and roles as Chair?

“Chairing committee meetings, supporting junior members to advance their careers and promoting welding and joining technologies through education outreach.”

What were your goals when you initially chaired the YMC and did they change over your time as Chair?

“With my passion for education outreach, running events for schools was my main driver during my seven years as chair. However, I was able to get people from lots of different backgrounds involved in the committee, to help improve what we could offer.”

What changes within the industry as a whole, and more specifically, within the Institute itself would you say that you’ve seen for Younger Engineers within the time you undertook the role to now?

“I think working towards professional registration has become more recognised by younger engineers, which is great. Being adaptable to a situation is certainly now an essential part of being a good professional engineer, especially in the current times we find ourselves due to COVID-19.”

About Matt’s time as a Member with The Welding Institute

Why did you initially join The Welding Institute?

“I was already following a professional engineering route based on my mechanical engineering degree and joining The Welding Institute was ideal when I joined TWI and started to work in the field of welding, joining and associated technologies. To achieve Fellow status recently was a great honour and I hope I can continue to support the Institute in as many ways as possible.”

What roles do you currently undertake with the Institute?

“I am still part of the YMC, even though I am no longer the Chair. I also conduct professional review interviews and mentor junior engineers at TWI who are working towards professional registration.”

Why did you choose to become professionally registered with the Engineering Council?

“For me, CEng shows that you have been practising as a competent engineer, rather than just having a qualification. It holds a lot of weight as it is peer reviewed and I have often found that the best engineers I have worked with over the years have also been professionally registered.”

What advice would you give to someone who is considering professional membership or registration?

“Start early! Learn more about the competences required and start collecting evidence towards them. It will make it a lot easier to prepare your application when the time is right!”

The Welding Institute would like to congratulate Matt on his well-deserved Fellow status and would also like to thank him for all of the work that he has and continues to do with our Members!

Related Content:

Younger Members Committee – New Chair Elect, Catherine Leahy AWeldI

A new statement has recently been released by the International Institute of Welding (IIW) regarding lung cancer and arc welding.

The statement was produced by the IIW Commission VIII, ‘Health, Safety and Environment,’ which is chaired by TWI Technology Manager and Member of The Welding Institute, Eur Ing Geoff Melton (SenMWeldI CEng). Commission VIII studies occurrences during the welding process that can potentially affect health, safety and the environment, and additionally looks at the development of technical guidance for correct management of the fabrication process in industry. Commission VIII acts as the global interdisciplinary forum for exchange of knowledge in the industry, supported by the expertise of its members who represent different scientific disciplines including Medicine, Chemistry, Occupation Hygiene and Welding Engineering.

The IIW is the world’s largest network and centre of reference for welding and allied joining technologies. Its mission is, ‘to act as the worldwide network for knowledge exchange of joining technologies to improve the global quality of life.’ The IIW’s mission also involves operating as the global body for the science and application of joining technology by providing a forum for networking and knowledge exchange among scientists, researchers and industry. Read more...

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published Monograph 118, in 2018 where it outlined that welding fumes were evaluated and reclassified as Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans). Prior to this assessment, an IARC evaluation from 1990 classified welding fumes as ‘possibly carcinogenic’ to humans (Group 2B). The 2018 reclassification was therefore based on the epidemiological excess risk for lung cancer and the suppressive effect on the immune system caused by welding fumes.

Read the full IIW statement of lung cancer and welding below:

LUNG CANCER AND ARC WELDING OF STEELS

Assessment of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

Monograph 118, 2018

In 2018, IARC published Monograph 118, in which welding fumes were evaluated, and has reclassified them as Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans). Based on this assessment, IARC revised its evaluation from 1990, when it classified welding fumes as “possibly carcinogenic” to humans (group 2B).

This assessment was based on an epidemiological excess risk for lung cancer and was supported by publications on local and systemic inflammatory processes and a suppressive effect on the immune system caused by welding fumes.

Background:

In 2003, IIW Commission VIII issued a statement on the excess risk of lung cancer in electric arc welders. In 2011, this statement was reconfirmed (Ref. Welding in the World, 55, 12-20, 2011).

IIW recommended that to eliminate the excess risk of lung cancer, welders and their managers must ensure that:

Since 2011, more human studies have been published. On the balance of evidence, the grade of risk excess has been confirmed. This assessment has been corroborated also in a meta-analysis published subsequently after the IARC monograph 118 (Honaryar et al. 2019). Again, the excess risk has been shown irrespective of the type of steel (mild steel or stainless steel) welded.

In addition to lung cancer, IARC stated that there is also an excess risk for kidney cell cancer, as shown in several epidemiological studies. The evidence was rated “limited” due to the fact that any confounding effect of solvents could not be ruled out.

IARC also classified ultraviolet radiation from arc welding as carcinogenic (sufficient evidence, group 1), based on an excess risk of uveal melanoma of welders found in some epidemiological studies.

Therefore, based on the current state of knowledge, IIW confirms its statement from 2011 and encourages all those responsible to reduce the exposure to welding fume to a minimum.

IIW recommends that to eliminate the excess risk of lung cancer, welders and their managers must ensure that exposure to welding fume is minimized, at least to national guidelines.

Our first Structural Integrity Technical Group Meeting of this year will be looking at 'Latest Developments in Fitness for Service Procedures in BS7910, R6 and ASME/API579,' and will be hosted online on the 15 April.

This online afternoon event will look into the application of fitness-for-service procedures within multiple industries, globally, being dominated by three key codes and standards:

• BS7910
• R6
• ASME/ API579

Each of these codes/standards have recently or are currently in the process of being revised and The Welding Institute’s Structural Integrity Technical Group has organised for experts with detailed experience and knowledge of the developments of each of these codes/standards to deliver presentations at this technical event, highlighting the most significant changes. Our speakers are highly experienced engineers who chair or are Members of one or more of the committees overlooking the development of these codes/standards.

Outline of presentations and speakers:

The R6 Assessment Procedure: Recent Developments in Revision 4 Amendment 12 and Beyond - Cory Hamelin, Materials Engineer at EDF Energy

BS 7910:2019 - What's New? – Isabel Hadley, Technology Fellow at TWI Ltd

Transporting Carbon Dioxide / Hydrogen in Pipelines. What are the Implications for Structural Integrity? – Andrew Cosham, CEO of Ninth Planet Engineering Limited

Recent Developments in Fracture Mechanics Aimed at Reducing Conservatisms in Defect Assessment Methodologies – John Sharples, Senior Consultant in Materials Science and Structural Integrity at Jacobs

ASME/ API579: 2021 and Beyond - Benjamin Hantz, ASME Fellow Technology Advisor Mechanical Reliability at Valero

Group Discussion and Q&A – all speakers

Find out more and register here!

More about the speakers...

This event is run jointly with FESI

FESI provides a forum for the development and enhancement of best practice for engineering structural integrity practitioners, for academics and across all industry sectors in the UK and overseas.