The Welding Institute (TWI) is a British research organisation that studies welding and related engineering technologies, based near Cambridge, UK. It was originally registered as the Institution of Welding Engineers in 1923. TWI services include consultancy, technical advice, research and investigation for industrial member companies and public funding bodies. It also offers training and examination services in NDT, welding and inspection across the globe. The Welding Institute Group now encompasses a professional membership institution (‘The Welding Institute’) and an engineering research, consultancy and technology organisation (‘TWI Ltd’), as well as an international training school (‘TWI Training’), the National Structural Integrity Research Centre (‘NSIRC’), a series of collaborative enterprises with academia (‘The TWI Innovation Network’), and more.
TWI Ltd
Descended from the British Welding Research Association (BWRA), TWI Ltd is now a global independent research and technology organisation. As a membership-based organisation, TWI Ltd works across all industry sectors and in all aspects of manufacturing, fabrication and whole-life integrity management technologies, where it provides services such as consultancy, technical advice, research and investigation for industrial member companies and public funding bodies. TWI Ltd provides engineering research, consultancy and technical services in welding, joining, materials, inspection and structural integrity. Its work includes research and development, knowledge transfer, technical investigation, and the assessment and management of engineering assets throughout their service life. TWI's R&D work has delivered a number inventions and developments to industry, including advancing MIG and TIG welding, creating CTOD and methods of understanding of brittle fracture, fatigue design SN curves, linear friction and friction stir welding, local vacuum electron beam welding, and many more. Along with wider research programmes, TWI Ltd works directly with industrial member companies through single client projects to provide bespoke solutions. Much of the work is confidential, with the outcomes and associated intellectual property owned exclusively by the client. Through TWI Training, it also offers training and examination services in NDT, welding and inspection across the globe.
The Welding Institute
While TWI Ltd works for its industrial member companies, The Welding Institute has a separate membership of around 4,500 individual professionals, who receive range of support in their careers and professional development.[1] The Welding Institute is a professional engineering institution established in 1923 to support the development of engineering professionals in the fields of welding, joining and allied technologies. The Welding Institute is a membership organisation as well as being a licensed member of the Engineering Council, which allows them to assess and nominate eligible members to become registered as a Chartered Engineer (CEng), Incorporated Engineer (IEng) or Engineering Technician (EngTech). The Institute also provides guidance to statutory bodies such as the British Standards Institution, the Engineering Council, and the UK government.
Structure
The professional division of the organisation (The Welding Institute) is a licensed member of the Engineering Council. It is situated at Granta Park, near Duxford Museum. Both industrial and professional members are represented on the Council that oversees TWI's business and operational activities.
UK and overseas operations TWI has several facilities both in the UK and overseas: TWI headquarters at Granta Park, Cambridgeshire TWI Technology Centre (North East), set up in 1992 in north-west Middlesbrough. TWI Technology Centre (Yorkshire), on the Waverley Business Park in Catcliffe. TWI NDT Validation Centre (Wales), at Harbourside Business Park, Port Talbot, in south Wales The organisation has international branches in Australia, Bahrain, Canada, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
History
Earlier institution The Welding Institute (TWI Professional Group) is a direct descendant of the Institution of Welding Engineers Limited, which began when 20 men gathered on 26 January 1922 in the Holborn Restaurant in London 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.
Formation
In April 1934, the Institution merged with the British Advisory Welding Council to form a new organisation – the Institute of Welding. This was important to the later creation of TWI Ltd as it took the scope of the Institute beyond personal professional membership to also include industrial member companies in order to further support research activities. 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. It took the threat of war, the 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 The debarring of professional institutions from acting as research associations forced the two arms of the Institute to split in 1946, leading to the creation of the British Welding Research Association (BWRA) as a separate entity to The Institute of Welding.
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