Key TWI staff involved with the aerospace industry

Richard Freeman
Richard Freeman
Prior to joining TWI in 1996, Richard Freeman worked for six years in the aerospace industry for a company manufacturing flight control systems. He was a CAA approved signatory for the use of a range of engineering materials and processes in new designs. He obtained his BSc in Metallurgy from Sheffield Hallam University, PhD from the University of Wolverhampton while working in industry and is a chartered engineer. He is Business Manager for TWI's Aerospace activities.
Iain Smith
Iain Smith
Iain leads the internal team charged with developing aerospace activities at TWI. He joined TWI in 1979 to work on the fatigue and fracture behaviour of welded structures. Since 1985 he has held a number of posts relating to the promotion of TWI's services to various industry sectors and, in addition to being the Industry Sector Manager for Aerospace, he is responsible for the capture and exploitation of TWI's new ideas and inventions. The most important of these for the Aerospace industry has been Friction Stir Welding.
Sue Dunkerton
Sue Dunkerton
Sue joined TWI in 1979 with a BSc in Metallurgy from UMIST. Sue is a Fellow of The Welding Institute, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials and a Chartered Engineer. She is a Business Manager at TWI responsible for supporting business development activities across all of TWI's joining, coating and manufacturing technologies. Although supporting all market sectors, her specific strengths lie in aerospace, medical, electronics and defence.

For all enquiries on the aerospace sector, please contact the Aerospace Industry Team aerospace@twi.co.uk ).

Chris Wiseman
Chris Wiseman
Chris Wiseman is responsible for Corporate Development of Membership in this sector. He joined TWI in 2007 following a four year Business Manager role, delivering high end materials testing services into Aerospace, Automotive and General Engineering. Prior to this, Chris had almost 30 years experience with a global Aluminium producer, during which he developed a technical and knowledge transfer career in research and development. His HNC in Metallurgy added value to a wide range of projects in which he contributed or managed, including, Alloy Development, Thermo-Mechanical Processing, Corrosion, Aluminium Welding, Coatings, Bonding and Pre-Treatment and Fabrication.
David Harvey
David Harvey

David Harvey joined TWI in 1986, and has worked on surface engineering projects in the aerospace sector covering both welding and thermal spraying applications. David Harvey has run projects including the weld repair of aircraft wing components, for example slat and flap tracks, leading edge slats, fabricated in steel, titanium and magnesium alloys, and hardfacing of nickel alloy turbine components.

Since 1991, David Harvey has helped to establish TWI as a centre for thermal spraying, particularly high velocity oxyfuel (HVOF) spraying. Projects have included HVOF coatings for thermal barriers (yttria stabilised zirconia), high temperature corrosion (MCrAlY) and wear resistance (metal bonded carbides).

As Chairman of the Surface Engineering Society (1994-1997), David Harvey has had regular contact with many OEMs, sub-contractors and welding/spraying equipment suppliers to the aerospace sector.

Paul Burling
Paul Burling
Paul Burling obtained his higher national certificate in Production Engineering from Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. He has extensive experience in the project management of large commercial projects worldwide. These include a depth of knowledge of composite materials for military and commercial applications. Projects include: CN235 general purpose military transport, Fokker F27, Friendships, Maritime, Airbus A340, A3XX, EH101 helicopter blades, Lynx helicopter blades, Stealth Drones, ATR 42/72. At TWI, Paul is responsible for business development in the aerospace and construction and engineering sectors.
Isabel Hadley
Isabel Hadley
After a degree from Cambridge University and a PhD from Sheffield University, Isabel worked as a materials/structural integrity engineer in a number of industries, including steel research, offshore engineering and nuclear power. In 1992 she joined TWI where she is currently Section Manager, Fracture Integrity Management (part of the Structural Integrity Technology Group). Her responsibilities include the management of projects concerning the integrity of welded structures, in particular pressure vessels and pipelines.
Marcus Warwick
Marcus Warwick
Marcus completed his PhD, on the thermo-mechanical properties of metal-matrix composites, in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge. He has extensive practical experience, gained over 15 years in the materials industry, including development and introduction of new manufacturing processes in the fields of adhesives, composites and plastics joining. He currently works in the polymers section at TWI, where he has led a number of projects developing applications of plastics laser welding.
Chris Allen
Chris Allen
Chris gained his Natural Sciences degree from the University of Cambridge then completed a doctorate in the area of Materials Science at the University of Oxford. Following postdoctoral research, he worked for two years as a project leader at Corus in rolled aluminium products, before joining TWI in 2002. Since then, he has specialised in the project management and delivery of laser welding projects for a range of TWI's clients, primarily in the aerospace, shipbuilding, defence, and automotive sectors.
Ian Hogarth
Ian Hogarth

Ian has over 34 years experience in welding and construction, working in the UK and overseas, both onshore and offshore. He has held positions including Radiographic Interpreter and NDT Technician, Inspection Engineer, QA Manager, Welding Engineer and Welding Manager.

Ian is currently Business Development and Product Manager for TWI Training and Exams.

Mike Russell
Mike Russell
Mike is Manager of TWI's Friction and Forge Processes Section. His interests lie in friction stir welding, and other friction based processes.
Colin Ribton
Colin Ribton
Colin graduated from The University of Nottingham in 1984 and joined TWI's Electron Beam group in 1985 and since that time he has worked extensively on the research and development of high power electron beam equipment. In 2001 he moved to a start-up company developing novel antenna technologies, where he became Vice President of Application Engineering. He returned to TWI in 2003 to lead the Electron Beam group, and has been involved with the development and application of electron beam in a range of industries.
Ian Cooper
Ian Cooper

Ian joined TWI in March 2005 as a Principal Project Leader in the NDT Technology Group. He is currently working on improving the reliability of titanium billet inspection using phased array UT and area scanning of composites using UT and Laser Shearography.

Prior to joining TWI, Ian accumulated 29 year's experience of aerospace NDT and engineering in the RAF and in industry. Most recent work was in application development of area scanning systems for use on high performance composite structure.

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