The Welding Institute
Encyclopedia
The Welding Institute or TWI is a research and technology organisation with a specialty in welding
. The Welding Institute is based in Cambridgeshire
, England
, since 1946, and has several offices around the world.
Friction stir welding
was introduced by The Welding Institute in 1991.
Both Industrial and Professional Members are represented on the Council that oversees The Welding Institute’s business and the operational activities of its Directors.
and resolved to establish an association to bring together acetylene
welders and those interested in electric arc welding
. The date of registration under the Companies Act was 15 February 1923. Slow growth over the next ten years saw Membership grow to 600 with an income of £800 per annum.
, UK, a country house and grounds in poor repair, for £3850 and commenced business under Allan Ramsay Moon as its Director of Research. The first welding shop was established in stables adjoining the house, and fatigue
research commenced under Dr. Richard Weck.
BWRA also occupied a very fine house in London, 29 Park Crescent, which it converted into a metallurgical
laboratory, with the butler’s pantry becoming the polishing room and the coachman’s quarters, the machine shop.
Ramsay Moon left after one year, disillusioned at the grant of only £30,000 from DSIR, and it fell to Dr. Harry Taylor to grow the organisation into a viable business. By the 1950s, the organisation had sufficiently healthy finances that it could at last commence construction of purpose built laboratories in the grounds of Abington Hall.
, Port Talbot
and the Advanced Manufacturing Park
, South Yorkshire) and operated facilities in the USA, China
, Southeast Asia
, South America
and the Middle East
.
Welding
Welding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes...
. The Welding Institute is based in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, since 1946, and has several offices around the world.
Friction stir welding
Friction stir welding
Friction-stir welding is a solid-state joining process and is used for applications where the original metal characteristics must remain unchanged as far as possible...
was introduced by The Welding Institute in 1991.
Structure
The Professional Division of TWI is a Licensed Member of the Engineering Council. It is situated at Granta Park, at the junction of the A11 and the terminus of the A505, three miles east of Duxford Museum. The nearest train station is Whittlesford Parkway railway station.Both Industrial and Professional Members are represented on the Council that oversees The Welding Institute’s business and the operational activities of its Directors.
Technology centres
- TWI Technology Centre (North East), set up in 1992 in north-west Middlesbrough, next to the Tees
- TWI Technology Centre (Yorkshire), on the Waverley Business Park in CatcliffeCatcliffeCatcliffe is a village and civil parish on the north-west bank of the River Rother in South Yorkshire, England. It is located in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, about south of the town of Rotherham and east of Sheffield City Centre.-History:...
, off the B6066 - TWI NDT Validation Centre (Wales), at MargamMargamMargam is a suburb of Port Talbot in the Welsh county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, close to junction 39 of the M4 motorway.- History :...
in south Wales, at junction 39 of the M4, next to the steel worksPort Talbot SteelworksPort Talbot Steelworks is an integrated steel production plant in Port Talbot, Wales capable of producing nearly 5 million tonnes of steel slab per annum. The majority of the slab is rolled on-site at Port Talbot and at the Newport Llanwern site to make a variety of steel strip products. The... - TWI Aberdeen, Aberdeen, near the A90A90 roadThe A90 road is a major north to south road in eastern Scotland, running from Edinburgh to Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire.From Edinburgh, it travels west and over the Forth Road Bridge, before turning into the M90 motorway. At Perth, the M90 again becomes the A90, now running north east to Dundee...
bridge over the River DonRiver Don, AberdeenshireThe River Don is a river in north-east Scotland. It rises in the Grampians and flows eastwards, through Aberdeenshire, to the North Sea at Aberdeen. The Don passes through Alford, Kemnay, Inverurie, Kintore, and Dyce...
, in north-west Aberdeen
Earlier institution
The Welding Institute is a direct descendant of the Institution of Welding Engineers Limited, which began in traditional British style when 20 men gathered on 26 January 1922 in the Holborn Restaurant in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and resolved to establish an association to bring together acetylene
Acetylene
Acetylene is the chemical compound with the formula C2H2. It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in pure form and thus is usually handled as a solution.As an alkyne, acetylene is unsaturated because...
welders and those interested in electric arc welding
Arc welding
Arc welding is a type of welding that uses a welding power supply to create an electric arc between an electrode and the base material to melt the metals at the welding point. They can use either direct or alternating current, and consumable or non-consumable electrodes...
. The date of registration under the Companies Act was 15 February 1923. Slow growth over the next ten years saw Membership grow to 600 with an income of £800 per annum.
Formation
In April 1934, the Institution merged with the British Advisory Welding Council to form a new organisation – the Institute of Welding. A symposium that same year, Welding of Iron and Steel, held in conjunction with the Iron and Steel Institute, showed the need for a research programme, something clearly beyond the reach of the parsimoniously funded organisation. It took the threat of war, the dedication of officers of its Welding Research Council and modest funding from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), to generate the will and ability to commence such a programme in 1937. The Institute had no laboratories of its own and supported work, mainly in UK universities.Research association
In the late 1940s, a move was made to transform the Welding Research Council to the recently established status of Research Association, thereby giving it access to DSIR funding in proportion to that raised from industry. At the time, professional institutions were debarred from acting as Research Associations so the establishment of the British Welding Research Association (BWRA) in 1946 forced separation from the Institute.Cambridgeshire
BWRA bought Abington Hall, near CambridgeCambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, UK, a country house and grounds in poor repair, for £3850 and commenced business under Allan Ramsay Moon as its Director of Research. The first welding shop was established in stables adjoining the house, and fatigue
Fatigue (material)
'In materials science, fatigue is the progressive and localized structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading. The nominal maximum stress values are less than the ultimate tensile stress limit, and may be below the yield stress limit of the material.Fatigue occurs...
research commenced under Dr. Richard Weck.
BWRA also occupied a very fine house in London, 29 Park Crescent, which it converted into a metallurgical
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
laboratory, with the butler’s pantry becoming the polishing room and the coachman’s quarters, the machine shop.
Ramsay Moon left after one year, disillusioned at the grant of only £30,000 from DSIR, and it fell to Dr. Harry Taylor to grow the organisation into a viable business. By the 1950s, the organisation had sufficiently healthy finances that it could at last commence construction of purpose built laboratories in the grounds of Abington Hall.
Academic programmes
The Institute of Welding had bought property in London very close to the Imperial College of Science and Technology. It ran an expanding training programme through its School of Welding Technology and later the School of Non Destructive Testing.Merger
In 1957, Richard Weck, became Director of BWRA and ensured that the organisation continued to research advances in welding methods, metallurgy and engineering understanding. The 1960s saw significant growth in the size and scope of BWRA, including its involvement in training. In general, these activities complemented those of the Institute of Welding but it became apparent that the two organisations would serve industry better by merging. The successor to DSIR, the Ministry of Technology, put forward no objection so a merger was agreed and a new body – The Welding Institute – was created on 28 March 1968. The combined income of the two parts resulted in the new organisation exceeding £1m in its first year.Withdrawal of government funds
Direct support from Government departments ceased in the 1970s but The Welding Institute not only survived this funding crisis but grew rapidly. The original individual Professional Membership envisaged in 1922 developed into a body of more than 7000 engineers.Expansion worldwide
By 2008, the organisation had opened offices and laboratories at three further sites within the UK (in MiddlesbroughMiddlesbrough
Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...
, Port Talbot
Port Talbot
Port Talbot is a town in Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It had a population of 35,633 in 2001.-History:Port Talbot grew out of the original small port and market town of Aberafan , which belonged to the medieval Lords of Afan. The area of the parish of Margam lying on the west bank of the lower Afan...
and the Advanced Manufacturing Park
Advanced Manufacturing Park
The Advanced Manufacturing Park is a manufacturing technology park on the Rotherham/Sheffield border in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, facing the Sheffield Business Park across the Parkway...
, South Yorkshire) and operated facilities in the USA, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
.