There were three awards made at the Annual General Meeting of The Welding Institute at Great Abington on 19 July 2001. Two presentations were made. The third, the Brooker Medal to Professor Masao Ushio, will be presented by DrRichard Dolby at the Japan Welding Society 75th Anniversary Meeting in November this year.
The Lidstone Medal is awarded annually by ESAB Group UK to the person under 40 years of age deemed to have made the most significant contribution to the advancement of welding technology during the previous five years. Theaward was made for 2000 to Steve Jones of Rolls Royce plc for the development of a method of using two fusion processes to create components fit for the aerospace and energy industries. His work minimised lead times from 7 months toless than 40 days with a cost reduction of approximately 50%.
The Sir Charles Lillicrap Medal is awarded biennially in recognition of the best contribution over the past two years to the application of welding or joining technology, allied processes and ancillary techniques to realconstructions. The 2000 award was given to Doug Waldron of The Boeing Company for his introduction of friction stir welding into the manufacturing process of his company. He recognised the potential of this process for the fabricationof space shuttle fuel tanks and in so doing reduced costs by 80% compared to arc welding and production time by 60% thus saving Boeing many millions of dollars.
See Award celebrates friction stir welding in industry for the full story
Launch of Malaysian training facility
The new training facility in Johor Bahru was opened earlier this year marking a step forward in the co-operation of TWI and the Malaysian Construction Industry Development Board. TWI has a long history of commitment to Malaysiastretching over thirty years and during the last ten years a very successful training facility has been set up in Kuala Lumpur. Collaboration between TWI and CIDB will expand in the future to enable introduction of new technologies andto develop new products for the construction industry.
