TWI, since its early beginnings as the British Welding Research Association in 1946, has been at the forefront of arc welding development. It developed CO2 shielding for MIG/MAG making the process viable for welding carbon steel. It built the first solid-state power sources, paving the way for thyristor and inverter technology.
More recently, work has concentrated on high productivity welding, seeking higher welding speed, cost reduction, improved quality and increased productivity in a range of materials and applications, including titanium alloys and clad pipelines. Working with equipment and consumables developers and suppliers, work has been carried out with recently developed technologies to study feasibilities for different applications and the benefits and limitations. Automation and robotics also feature strongly in its work with many aspects of mechanisation and remote welding, such as seam tracking and sensing being studied. A fully flexible manufacturing system with an autonomous robot has been developed in a collaborative programme. Recent work also includes research on mechanised underwater wet welding and laser diode based vision systems. Also of great interest is the control of distortion. A number of Low Stress/No Distortion (LSND) techniques have been evaluated and developed at TWI.
TWI is noted for its work on Health and Safety: welding fume (and hazards) and EMF in welding. The Arc Welding Department contributes expert advice to several national and international bodies and standards committees such as HSE, WEE/6, GEL/106, WEE/28, Cenelec/TC26A and IIW Committee XII.
The Arc Welding Department along with the Welding Engineering Department develop, supervise/implement and provide guidance on specialist repair welding procedures for a wide range of applications across all industry sectors. This activity ranges from controlled deposition repair techniques to remote welding of components in a nuclear reactor.
For more information please contact: arc_welding@twi.co.uk
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