News

Northern Ireland Branch

Introduction

The Loyal Service Award is given by The Welding Institute’s Professional Board, in recognition of outstanding service to the Branches and committees of The Welding Institute.

Role within The Welding Institute

Ken Barr SenMWeldI CEng, a Member of the Welding Institute since 1980, has been recognised for his outstanding contributions to The Welding Institute’s Northern Ireland Branch.

He has been a loyal Member of the Northern Ireland branch for over 30 years and is receiving a Loyal Service Reward to recognise his enormous contribution to branch activities over this period.

Ken was one of the original founding members of the Northern Ireland branch, and remains an active member today. Over his time at the branch, he has held various senior positions such as chairman, secretary and treasurer, and has been a committee member for around a decade. Ken continues to offer advice and support today, such as his help hosting events within the foundry of the local college.

The Welding Institute is extremely grateful for Ken’s significant contribution to the Northern Ireland Branch over 30 years, and would like to congratulate him on receiving a Loyal Service Award 2020. 

South Western Branch

Introduction

The Loyal Service Award is given by The Welding Institute’s Professional Board, in recognition of outstanding service to the Branches and committees of The Welding Institute.

Role within The Welding Institute

Hugh McPhillips MWeldI IEng, a Member of the Welding Institute since 1973, has been recognised for his outstanding contributions to The Welding Institute’s South Western Branch.

Hugh has served many roles for The Welding Institute, both in the South West and beyond. Between 1990 and 2009 he was liaison officer between the College of North West London and the TWI London Branch.

In 2011, Hugh was appointed treasurer with the task of regenerating the South Western Branch. His role was essential in establishing the main branch at Bristol and centres in Devon and Cornwall. Since then he has continued to support the branch, with his work including engagement with local colleges, offering students the opportunity to attend branch meetings held at the colleges. He has served for 9 years as branch treasurer and 3 years as branch president in the South West.

Hugh has also formed a reciprocal support group with multiple organisations and institutes to promote meetings and share good industry practice. These organisations include the Ministry of Defence, the Nuclear Institute and the West of England Metals and Materials Association, to name just a few. Additionally, he has held numerous positions including vice-chairman and chairman of the Association for Welding and Fabrication Training and Education, a member of Education and Registration Committee, and judge and team manager of the UK Worldskills Construction Metalwork.

The Welding Institute would like to thank Hugh for his outstanding support of the South West Branch, and is proud to acknowledge this contribution by awarding him with a Loyal Service Award 2020.

Scottish Branch

Introduction

The Loyal Service Award is given by The Welding Institute’s Professional Board, in recognition of the outstanding service to the Branches of The Welding Institute!

Role within The Welding Institute

Alan Ramsay MWeldI IEng, a Member of the Welding Institute since 1996, has been recognised for his outstanding contributions to The Welding Institute’s Scottish Branch.

Alans’ involvement with the Scottish Branch extends over 30 years with his roles as Committee Member and Office Bearer. During his time as a Committee Member, Alan has also undertaken the role of ‘TWI Scottish Branch Annual Dinner Co-ordinator.’

As part of the Scottish Branch, Alan has undertaken various roles including as Branch Secretary for 4 years, being Branch Chairman on two occasions (for 4 years in total) and also taking on the role of Branch President on two occasions (again for a total of 4 years).

Alan has demonstrated his involvement and commitment to the Scottish Branch for 30 years, assisting across all areas of the branch’s development. This includes representing the branch on multiple TWI Committees through his representation on the Professional Board. His contributions, including helping to grow and promote membership of The Welding Institute, make him a worthy winner of a Loyal Service Award.

The Welding Institute celebrates and acknowledges Alan’s significant support of the Scottish Branch and congratulates him on being awarded the Loyal Service Award 2020!

Dr Geoff Booth – Accreditation and Education Committee and Technical Groups.

Introduction

The Loyal Service Award is given by The Welding Institute’s Professional Board, in recognition of the outstanding service to the Branches of The Welding Institute!

Role with The Welding Institute

Geoff Booth is a Fellow Member of The Welding Institute, joining in 1991. In 2013, he took on the role of Chair to The Welding Institute’s Structural Integrity (TG 6) Technical Group.

Geoff demonstrated his worthiness to receive this award by going above and beyond the requirements of his role, including arranging several joint meetings with the Forum for Engineering Structural Integrity (FESI) and creating a collaborative and inclusive culture for the group’s work. As Chair, Geoff has used his broad network of contacts to expand the collective knowledge and understanding of his field with the specific aim of targeting and developing younger Members.

Throughout his career at TWI, Geoff worked with a wide range of people, leading and developing a Group of 50 staff in the Structural Integrity Management Group. He also worked in the Lasers and Fatigue Group, and was responsible for setting up a business unit at the Edison Welding Institute in the USA. Whilst these were roles he performed as an employee of TWI, he brought much more to them and the Institute with his collaborative and consensus-building approach.

Through his experience and knowledge, Geoff was able to connect a broad range of speakers and participants to the Technical Group Meetings that he was responsible for. In addition to the organisation and running of these Technical Group Meetings, Geoff contributed a significant amount of time into reviewing and improving them, submitting comprehensive reports to the Director and the Professional Board.

His continuous support for The Welding Institute also extends beyond his role as a Technical Group Chair through his voluntary support of our accreditation activities, whilst also sitting on out Education Committee for many years. Geoff has also chaired accreditation visits with academic institutions, and volunteers as an academic review assessor for membership applications. His work also includes co-authoring the ‘Welding Engineer’s Guide to Fracture and Fatigue’ book, which still continues to be used by practitioners and experts within a range of fields and industry situations today.

The Welding Institute congratulates Geoff Booth on being a worthy recipient of The Loyal Service Award 2020!

Introduction

The Loyal Service Award is given by The Welding Institute’s Professional Board, in recognition of the outstanding service to the Branches of The Welding Institute!

Role with The Welding Institute

Eur Ing Alan Denney FWeldI CEng is a Fellow Member of The Welding Institute Joining in 1974, he has contributed significantly to support our London Branch throughout his time with The Institute.

Alans’ contribution and involvement to the London Branch extends over 45 years with him serving 40 years of that time on the Branch Committee. He is currently in his second term of being President of the London Branch which he undertook in 2014, and was also a role that he formerly carried out from 2003 to 2008. Alan was also the London Branch Programme Secretary from 2000 to 2015, a role that he is due to take on again later this year.

His support for the Branch includes assisting with organising speakers, venues, topics and funding for events whilst supporting and encouraging younger Members through mentoring.

Other ways that Alan has demonstrated his outstanding service to The Welding Institute includes his role as Chair of the Offshore Energy Technical Group and his role as the Acting Chair of The Welding Institute’s NDT Technical Group.

The Welding Institute would like to congratulate Alan Denney on winning the Loyal Service Award 2020 and for his continued support and contribution to The Welding Institute’s London Branch.

International Women in Engineering Day is dedicated to celebrating and recognising all women within the engineering industry. The overall aim of International Women in Engineering Day, which will take place on 23 June, is to raise the profile of women in engineering and encourage others to pursue education and career opportunities within the industry. Read more here.

The Tipper Group, established by The Welding Institute, was formed in 2016 to meet the need for representation and awareness of a professional and inclusive culture that supports the development of engineers and technicians irrespective of gender, ethnicity, age, sexuality, beliefs, (dis)abilities, and socio-economic background.

Throughout The Welding Institute’s work with the Tipper Group, we have been involved in events supporting the encouragement and engagement of young people with the engineering profession, such as with the annual defect detectives’ day. Activities such as this allow the Institute to use our connections with TWI Ltd and its group companies to promote the engineering profession to all young people and help change the stereotypes of the industry, including with regard to gender.

The Welding Institute also actively encourages our Members to get involved with the Tipper Group, including using it as an opportunity to gain advice on professional membership and registration. Read some of our Member case studies here:

• Vasiliki Loukodimou
• Gabriela Gallegos

The main objectives of The Tipper Group are to create an unconscious bias, develop individuals’ confidence, support career progression and peer-to-peer learning, encourage and support an improved work / life balance, mentor one-another, seek quotas in shortlists for senior roles, and increase the overall profile of The Tipper Group through The Welding Institute’s website and social media.

Get involved with International Women in Engineering Day 2020

International Women in Engineering Day will be taking place on 23 June, 2020. Get involved by sending them details of how you will be celebrating the day!

For more details check out INWED’s website and see how you can get involved here!

The Welding Institute will be holding a webinar on 25 June 2020 on the topic of ‘Welding Process Investigation.’

About the event

This webinar covers an investigation of the acceptance, rejection and distortion that occurs when welding a set on (nozzles to shell) joint with seven different process variations. The webinar will look at this process in relation to its use within the manufacturing of pressure vessels.

The presentation will discuss the effects of different welding processes on the same joint using the same material, thickness and diameter. It will be presented within the context of the seven nozzles having been set up and tacked by one person (to ensure consistency), it will then talk through the process of the parts being welded using different processes and combinations of welding processes, before looking at the accurate measurement of the parts (before and after) to assess the quality for NDT and DT (VT, RT, PT and microsection). Finally, the presentation will cover and assess these results against different codes from EN 13445, RCC-M, ASME etc.

Speaker

Welding Institute Member, Eur Ing Michael Baverstock MSc CEng MWeldI will deliver the webinar presentation.

Mike Baverstock’s extensive knowledge of this presentation subject is supported by over 30 years’ of experience working within the welding industry. He has worked in multiple industry sectors, ranging from working with aircraft through to pressure vessels. Mike now runs his own welding engineering consultancy business, helping different companies in various industries to improve their welding quality and processes.

Register for the Event

To find out more about the event and how to join, please click here.

Register for the Welding Processes Investigation Webinar!

Volunteering with The Welding Institute

In recognition of this week being National Volunteers’ Week 2020, The Welding Institute would like to highlight the important role that our volunteers have and continue to play within the Institute. With the challenges faced by everybody this year, we are more grateful than ever!

Volunteers’ Week is celebrated annually to recognise the contributions that people across the country make through volunteering. Find out more here.

The Welding Institute would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our volunteers as, without their support, the Institute could not provide the services and experiences to its Members that it does. Our volunteers are a vital part of making these experiences so positive!

As a Professional Engineering Institution, one of our aims is to encourage the progression of our Members professionally through utilising the knowledge and experience of our more established Members. This aim has been continuously met by the hard work and effort of our volunteers, who are involved with the development of the Institute through participation on our Boards and Committees, supporting our Branch Network, managing events, or running Educational Outreach Programmes, to name just a few examples.

Our volunteers are also responsible for mentoring and assessing applicants in their pursuit of professional membership and Engineering Council registration, and this can be a challenging yet rewarding process. The role of membership and registration assessor allows volunteers to play a meaningful and valuable role in supporting the progression of other engineers and technicians in the industry, encouraging them to develop their skills and confidence. Volunteering is also an excellent opportunity for you to demonstrate your professional experience and support your own personal development too!

Types of Volunteers

Volunteers of The Welding Institute take many different forms, with the majority being volunteers that assist with the professional development of our Members through mentoring and assessing Members for professional status.

Find out more:

Our Volunteering page explains more about the volunteering roles offered by The Welding Institute.

Want to get Involved?

Check out our Volunteer Vacancies page and see how you can get involved!

Introduction

The Welding Institute has been keeping in contact with our Members across the globe to see how the Coronavirus outbreak is impacting different corners of the world. This Insight looks at Paul Staines’ perception of how COVID-19 has affected the manufacturing industry in the UK as well as his personal experience of strategising for his return to work.

Paul Staines MWeldI Eng-Tech

Paul is a Senior Controller of Production Engineering at Unipres UK Limited, where he oversees the assembly shop, which comprises of ‘resistance spot welding, projection welding and arc welding technologies.’ He is a new Member of The Welding Institute, only joining earlier this year, but has worked in the industry over the past 10 years.

How has Covid-19 impacted you personally?

Paul reflected on the change that the UK experienced during late March, describing how he ‘began to see the true effects with our main customer ceasing production.’ He explained that he ‘was worried about the effects this would have on our industry and the global economy,’ adding that the ‘UK was not ready for such a pandemic.’ On a more positive note, Paul highlighted how he has ‘learned a great deal about how important the manufacturing industry is, as so many manufacturers with various capabilities have pulled together to manufacture visors and other PPE for the NHS.’ He continued on to say that ‘this has been an incredible effort which I personally pay tribute to, it shows how dynamic manufacturers across the nations can be, and I feel very proud to be a part of it.’

How has Covid-19 impacted on your work?

Acknowledging the vast numbers of people within his company and across the UK being placed on furlough within the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), Paul explained that he ‘was one of the few members of staff that worked through the pandemic, making the necessary changes to the way we operate due to the outbreak of the virus.’ He continued by saying that ‘it has been a busy period to say the least, as we are currently installing RSW robots and assembly processes in preparation for new model production.’ Paul highlighted the important role that engineers are playing during this pandemic explaining that, ‘engineers are the very few people who are able to work. The disruption has had me carrying out various risk assessments around the plant in order to mitigate the risk of spreading infection.’

Paul also addressed the impact of Covid-19 on the industry as a whole, vocalising that ‘health and safety is the primary focus of every organisation and our secondary objective is to ensure we can keep the wheels of the economy turning. However, unfortunately, according to car registration data published by the SMMT, the sector is down somewhat 97% from this time last year.’ He added that, ‘we can only hope sales will pick up when the lockdown is lifted and some normality is restored. In the meantime we prepare to ramp up production and for everyone things will be very different returning to work.’

Continuing to highlight how his work-life has been impacted, Paul added that, ‘working start times have been staggered to prevent large gatherings on entering the plant and at break times, temperatures of staff and visitors are taken on entering the building, and meeting rooms and rest areas are spaced out with maximum occupancy limits in place to improve social distancing measures. Cleaning standards have been established for every piece of machinery and facility in the plant, while surface cleaners and sanitisers have been made available everywhere. These measures seem extreme but I believe they are here to stay for the foreseeable future. The impact on the sector has been unprecedented, but when normality starts to make a return we must continue to do everything we can to keep each other safe.’

What have you learnt from the current situation?

Paul began by explaining that he has learnt ‘a great deal from this situation and I think the first thing that springs to mind is how many people can do their job from home.’ He explained that, in his view, people working from home has not only helped reduce the spread of infection but also has had an impact on reducing emmissions and the amount of traffic on the roads due to fewer people commuting. He added that, although this could arguably have ‘an adverse effect on my industry’ due to a lower number of people purchasing cars or bus passes, he questioned if working from home was the future, adding that ‘with more automation than ever and the worry that industry 4.0 is making jobs redundant does it mean that remote working from anywhere becomes the norm? As technology continues to evolve, the way the world’s economics operate will have to change at some point.’

What can you share with other Members at this time?

Concluding his Member case study, Paul articulated that ‘although this has been a time of immense misery and tragedy, I think it has also been an opportunity to learn and grow as a nation, as a country, as a business, as a family and as an individual.’ He added that he has ‘personally been using the extra time over lockdown to read and learn. I would advise anyone who can’t work over this period of disruption to use this precious time to your advantage. The technology around us at this time allows us to progress our CPD. The Welding Institute has great sources of information and has kept me occupied for hours and, while we can’t do the things we used to like going out and dining with friends, it is important to keep the mind active and healthy as much as it is vital we don’t spread the virus.’

Introduction

The Welding Institute has been keeping in contact with our Members across the globe to see how the Coronavirus outbreak is impacting different corners of the world. This Insight looks at Norbert Sieczkiewicz’s experience in Lexington, USA.

Norbert Sieczkiewicz MWeldI CEng

Norbert is a PhD student with NSIRC and Lancaster University, sponsored by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. His PhD topic title is, ‘Approaches to Industry 4.0 implementation for electron beam quality assurance using Beam Assure.’ Find out more about Norbert’s PhD research on NSIRC’s website here! 

How has covid-19 impacted on you personally?

Norbert explained that his initial concerns were whether he would be able to return home to the UK from the USA due to border closures. He described the normality of him missing friends and family when living abroad, however, he added that the current situation created a ‘sense of helplessness which increased my emotional sensitivity. It took me a few days to realise that the world faced circumstances beyond our control.’ He chose to make the difficult decision to not return to the UK, deciding, ‘that it was not worth it to come back home by plane, which possibly can put myself and others at risk of spreading the disease.’ Despite this, Norbert explained that, ‘after all, it does not matter where I am carrying out my home office work,’ continuing on to say that there is still ‘a chance that the universities in the USA will reopen the labs and I will conduct my scheduled experiments.’

How has COVID-19 impacted on your work?

Describing how COVID-19 is impacting his colleagues and self differently, Norbert explained that he is currently undertaking an experiment in his short PhD visit to the University of Kentucky, which involves a ‘back-side weld pool monitoring project.’ He further explained that, ‘the lab is closed and I cannot conduct any weld trials. However, the welding laboratory team is supportive and provided me with their neural network model, alongside a dataset, to help me understand a similar project. They also helped me with setting up the programming environment and image pre-processing code.’ He added that this is keeping him ‘prepared for reopening the Welding Research Laboratory, so I can conduct all necessary experiments directly.’

On top of this, Norbert is also working towards his ‘PhD activities related to electron beam welding (EBW) and beam probing,’ adding that he can always count on his ‘industrial supervisor, Dr Colin Ribton, for good advice.’ Norbert continued, ‘During the coronavirus pandemic, his help is invaluable, by providing a large BeamAssure dataset. It keeps me busy to analyse it, with the help of the deep neural network, and overcome challenges that arise with beam monitoring of the EBW process.’

What have you learnt from the current situation?

Reflecting on his experiences, Norbert added that, ‘Working from home is challenging and requires a great deal of organisation. Setting small goals for myself and regular meetings with my supervisors keeps me motivated. Their feedback and guidance keep my work progressing. Apart from the PhD project, frequent physical activity reduces feelings of stress and anxiety.’ He also notes that he is ‘lucky enough to have a garden where I am enjoying beautiful sunsets and starry skies. I reshaped my approach to life because I realised that simple things make me happy, like the neighbour’s cats’ daily visits.’

What can you share with other Members at this time?

Norbert ended with this positive outlook on the situation; ‘it is a new situation for everyone and it is not easy to deal with negative emotions. We are surrounded by bad news, which can easily make us feel out of control. Looking on the bright side, we can see small miracles and some of the countries did an amazing job at containing the spread. We need to realise that the COVID-19, at some point, will go away. The labs and workplaces will be open again, where we will carry out our amazing jobs again. We can use the pandemic time to finish our reports, analyse previously gathered data or develop new skills. Please stay healthy and take care of yourself!’