News

The Welding Institute’s Teesside and Northumbria Branches will be hosting a webinar for their Branch Members which will look at the sub-surface machining technique, ‘CoreFlowTM,’ on the 19 October, 2020.

The webinar will look at ‘CoreFlowTM,’ a highly disruptive, new sub-surface machining technique invented by TWI Ltd. The talk will explore this revolutionary new technology and its potential uses in heat exchangers, cooling systems and other systems.

The talk will be delivered by TWI Principal Project Leader in Friction and Forge Processes and Welding Institute Member, João Gandra (MWeldI Interim CEng). João’s experience within Friction Welding expands across both academic and industrial environments, with him also having published over 20 peer-reviewed publications and conference papers.

Click here to find out more and register for the event.

The Eastern Counties Branch will be hosting a Member only webinar on, ‘The Denver Sluice Complex,’ specifically for the Members of their Branch. Guest speaker and Superintendent at Denver Complex, Daniel Pollard, will be delivering this webinar on 14 October, 2020.

The webinar will look at the Denver Sluice Complex and its role in water management and protection of the people of the Fens, their properties and low-lying land from flooding. The complex is located at the confluent of five watercourses and was initially constructed in the mid-1600s. This event will also explore the current systems of sluices and structures that the Environment Agency, who are responsible for the Denver Complex’s management, continues to put in place.

For more information about this event please see our events page here.

The Welding Institute (Southern Counties Branch) will be hosting a webinar on ‘Inspecting Big Ben and other experiences in NDT,’ where guest speaker and former President of the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT), Caroline Bull (HonFInstNDT, CEng and MAPM) will be presenting. The webinar will take place on 17 September, 2020 at 7:00pm.

First starting her career in Non-Destructive Testing at the age of 17, Caroline has extensive experience and knowledge in the testing and analysis technique of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT). Throughout her career, she has contributed and worked on multiple research programmes and completed NDT inspections globally including the inspection of ‘Big Ben’ in the Houses of Parliament.

The webinar will include a reflection on Caroline’s previous experiences working within NDT, including her role within a team responsible for carrying out and completing the prestigious inspection of Big Ben. She will also talk about her NDT research and service work and additionally will look at her time as a Past President of BINDT.

To find out more about the webinar and how to register please click here.

Please note: if you previously attempted to register and were unsuccessful, please try again as the IT related issue has now been resolved.

Andrew Halliday is a Technician Member (TechWeldI) of The Welding Institute and is also professionally registered as an Engineering Technician with the Engineering Council. He has been a Member of The Welding Institute for over 20 years and is also a Member of our Northumbrian Branch.

Through his participation in The Welding Institute’s recent continuous professional development (CPD) audit, Andrew has provided us with his personal advice with respect to the completion of his own CPD and the benefits and value he gains through the process of carrying it out.

Andrew explained that, with regard to his approach to maintaining his CPD, he takes the attitude that “you are never too old to learn something new,” adding that, “I’ve held managerial and supervisory positions that have included Civil, E&I, and coating disciplines, which are beyond my own expertise, so I endeavour to learn as much as I can.” He continued by saying that, as a result of this, it has enabled him to be confident in maintaining “the required oversite of the Inspectors that I am responsible for.” Another important aspect of Andrew’s statement regarding his completion of CPD, is the importance of completing both new and refresher training courses. Andrew explained that he is “also a great believer in taking any refresher training for the disciplines that I am certified for,” continuing on that, “this has proved beneficial in achieving successful recertification and gaining updated knowledge related to industry changes and awareness of Industry Code revisions.”

As a Member of The Welding Institute, you are able to benefit from a 5% discount on all TWI Training and Examination courses, with the opportunity to gain 2 CPD points per hour of attendance of a course that you have completed (variations in CPD points available are dependent on course types, please find a copy of our CPD Guidance leaflet which is available to our Members through our Member Portal here where further guidance and illustration of the different points for different activities is available).

Madie Allen (AWedlI) delivered a successful presentation on ‘Predicting the Microstructure of Additively Manufactured Parts,’ as a guest speaker in July.

During the talk, Madie discussed the ability and process of additive manufacturing (AM) to enable complex and highly optimised parts to be produced. Madie also shared an insight into how she became interested in mathematical modelling and its application in predicting the microstructure of additively manufactured parts.

The talk was very well received with those in attendance giving positive feedback, including one attendee saying that, “it was brilliant and definitely something to be repeated.”

Madie, who is a TWI Project Leader and a National Structural Integrity Research Centre (NSIRC) student at Brunel University London sponsored by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, will be presenting this webinar. View Madie’s NSIRC student profile and research here!

The Welding Institute’s Members can view her talk via the Member Portal. We would encourage any non-Members who enjoyed the talk and would like access to this Member benefit to join us!

The UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC) has been revised with the Engineering Council releasing the fourth edition on the 31 August, 2020, which is set to be implemented by the 31 December 2021.

The UK-SPEC establishes and sets out the competence and commitment required for registration with the Engineering Council as an Engineering Technician (EngTech), Incorporated Engineer (IEng) or Chartered Engineer (CEng).

To find out more and access a copy of the fourth edition of UK-SPEC, please see the Engineering Council’s website here.

The British Standards Institution (BSI) will be running a free online webinar for engineers and personnel associated with/working in every aspect of design, build and management of residential buildings, including higher risk residential buildings (HRRBs), on the 24 September, 2020.

The Competence Steering Group (CSG) was formed following Dame Judith Hackitt’s ‘Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety’ with the aim of taking forward its recommendations for safety improvement. The CSG published the interim report, ‘Raising the Bar’ in August 2019, with over 150 Institutions and 300 professionals contributing to the report.

The webinar will look at one of the recommendations from this report, creating a national standard suite of standards and supporting documents.

Leading the development of this suite of standards, BSI will deliver the webinar and launch the first consultation of the new standard, ‘Built Environment – Overarching Competence Framework - Specification.’

Read more about the webinar including details of how to register here. 

Ofqual have released an open consultation regarding the arrangements for the assessment and awarding of vocational, technical and other general qualifications from 2020 to 2021.

The open consultation is a follow on proposal for extending the extraordinary regulatory framework, with the consultation closing date set to be on 20 September 2020.

The proposed arrangements of the open consultation apply to all regulated qualifications excluding GCSEs, AS and A levels, and end-point assessments (EPAs). The arrangement aims to mitigate the disruption to teaching, learning and assessments in order to give learners the opportunity to achieve fair results from 2020 to 2021 and prevent disadvantaging to them through longer term impacts of the pandemic.

To find out more and have your say, please click here to see the Government’s official page for this Open Consultation.

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of Peter Thomas Houldcroft, a former Director of Research for TWI. He passed away peacefully, aged 97, on 3 August 2020, with his family rightfully announcing that “he was much loved and will be hugely missed.”

As a metallurgist, Peter began his career with the aluminium producer James Booth before moving to join the research arm of The Institute of Welding, the British Welding Research Association (BWRA). He worked from the London Park Crescent office, which was where the BWRA’s metallurgical research was undertaken, and worked on the welding of Al alloys. His early work focused on TIG welding behaviour before he began to research the joint properties of the newly-invented MIG welding process, which had been imported from the USA. As MIG welding became the worldwide process of choice for welding thicker Al alloys, Peter was a team member of the first UK-based demonstration project of an all-welded Al superstructure for a Thames launch.

It was around the same time that Peter developed the Fishbone test to quantify the cracking resistance of welded Mg alloys for aircraft fuel tanks and nuclear fuel canisters. He was then was at the forefront of a BWRA team developing weldable high strength Al alloys for military bridging and aircraft undercarriages.

BWRA’s Engineering Department had been based at Abington near Cambridge since 1946 and, in 1956, the London-based Metallurgy Group was moved to the same location. Peter moved with the group and went on to propose that welding research activities should be separated from metallurgy and engineering research, leading to the creation of a new Welding Technology Group, which Peter headed up. By 1964, Peter had taken over from Alan Wells as Director of Research after Alan left for the Queens University of Belfast.

It was during the early 1960s that Peter developed what was possibly his greatest contribution to engineering with the creation of what would later become a multi-billion pound industry. The BWRA was working with the British Navy and the Services Electronic Research Laboratory (SERL) on the development of laser welding. Peter used his expertise in metal cutting to propose the use of coaxially delivered oxygen for the laser cutting of metals. Despite being refused a patent application by the German examining body of the time, the idea and ensuing research eventually went on to create the worldwide laser cutting industry.

This ground-breaking research was not Peter’s only breakthrough at BWRA, as he also directed the build of the world’s first 2kW fast axial flow CO2 laser. This was the beginning of a new era concerned with the development of high power gas lasers for welding and cutting of metals, which was rapidly pursued worldwide.

His contributions to laser technology led to Peter being awarded the first ever UK Association of Industrial Laser Users’ medal in 1997, some eleven years after his retirement. Speaking at the time, Peter announced, “It has been 30 years since I invented gas assisted laser cutting at TWI and 11 years since I retired, so I quite expected that the event would have been forgotten.”

Of course, Peter’s expertise in laser processes could not be easily forgotten as he remained an expert in laser welding technology and in Al alloys until he retired from TWI (as the BWRA became) in 1986.

However, his influence over the continuing work of TWI can be felt today as Peter set up the first integrated Research Board in 1966 after all of the previous Research Committees were disbanded. This programme continues to work with many of the leading names in industry to guide the direction of TWI’s Core Research Programme. As part of his work with the Research Board, Peter won a succession of government grants to support a large programme of basic and applied research. Many TWI developments, which had worldwide impact, originated from this pioneering programme.

Outside of his work for TWI, Peter gave his time and support to the Institution of Metallurgists, becoming President in 1981 and then being elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1985. He also authored many papers and books on welding technology, including ‘Which Process?’ and 'Welding and Cutting - a Guide to Fusion Welding and Associated Cutting Processes', which was co-authored with Bob John.

Following retirement, Peter wrote a 50 year history of the BWRA/TWI, which was published in 1996. The excellent book provides a detailed record of the early years of the BWRA, its staff and the formation and subsequent growth of TWI into an internationally recognised centre of excellence in joining and associated technologies.

For all of his many achievements, it is perhaps the tributes paid by those who worked alongside him that demonstrate the calibre of Peter Houldcroft as a person.

Richard Dolby, himself a former TWI Director of Research and Technology, said, “In all my dealings with Peter Houldcroft, he was always polite and kind, an inherently modest man and a mentor and role model to me for many years. Looking back, we had almost identical career paths and we were both fortunate to be able to contribute to an expanding and successful engineering organisation, which was internationally recognised as a centre of excellence. Peter's contribution to laser technology worldwide has been well documented and is a wonderful legacy coming from a long and successful career.”

A former colleague of Peter’s from TWI, Steve Jones, revealed, “Peter was the first person I met at TWI when I arrived for interview in early 1971. He struck me as a man with wide interests - in addition to a technical discussion we spent a fair amount of time talking about Stonehenge!” He continued, “Peter’s technical contributions were correspondingly wide-ranging, including working with Arthur Smith and George Salter on the development of CO2 welding and the first development of laser cutting. I remember Peter as a supportive manager, concerned with staff welfare as well as technical excellence,” adding, “In retirement he took a great interest in the history of Royston cave, publishing an analysis of its original internal structure and possible use by the Templars.”

Peter Houldcroft not only impacted engineering and the work of TWI with his many years of service, but also had a profound effect on all those who met him and will be greatly missed.

The Engineering Council has announced that they are putting a freeze on fees for 2021, meaning there will be no increase in fees next year.

This decision has been put in place to address the current economic pressures and has been made in the interests of the industry as a whole. This will mean that the current 2020 fee structure will remain unchanged and they are offering further reduced annual fees for registrants experiencing financial hardship. Please click here to find out more about this.

As many of our Members will be aware, the professional registration fees fund the Engineering Council in its role as the regulatory body for the UK engineering profession and, therefore, it has been an important decision to support itself and its registrants within these times.

Please see the Engineering Council’s full press release with further details here.