The Welding Institute (TWI Ltd) is a research and technology organisation, with a specialty in

welding Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as b ...

. It has had headquarters near

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, since 1946, and has other facilities across the UK and around the world. TWI works across all industry sectors and in all aspects of manufacturing, fabrication and whole-life integrity management technologies. 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. Employing over 800 staff, TWI serves 700 industrial member companies across 4500 sites in 80 countries. The formation in 1922 of its professional institution, The Welding Institute, and the later establishment of the British Welding Research Association (BWRA) in 1946 provided the basis of the company group as it is today. The Welding Institute currently has a separate membership of over 6000 individuals.

Friction stir welding Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state joining process that uses a non-consumable tool to join two facing workpieces without melting the workpiece material. Heat is generated by friction between the rotating tool and the workpiece material ...

was invented by TWI in 1991.

Structure

The professional division of TWI is a licensed member of the

Engineering Council The Engineering Council (formerly Engineering Council UK; colloquially known as EngC) is the UK's regulatory authority for registration of Chartered and Incorporated engineers and engineering technician, holding a register of these and providi ...

. 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 the operational activities.

UK and overseas operations

Eclipse 500 Experimental Aircraft N504EA at TWI Ltd

* 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 Catcliffe is a village and civil parish on the north-west bank of the River Rother in South Yorkshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 2,108. It is in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, approximately sout ...

. * TWI NDT Validation Centre (Wales), at Harbourside Business Park,

Port Talbot Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south ...

, in south Wales * TWI Aberdeen in north-west Aberdeen The organisation has international branches in Australia, Bahrain, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and North America.

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 London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and resolved to establish an association to bring together

acetylene Acetylene ( systematic name: ethyne) is the chemical compound with the formula and structure . 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 its pure ...

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. A symposium that same year, Welding of Iron and Steel, held in conjunction with the

Iron and Steel Institute The Iron and Steel Institute was an English association organized by the iron trade of the north of England. Its object was the discussion of practical and scientific questions connected with the manufacture of iron and steel. History The first mee ...

, 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 so the establishment of the British Welding Research Association (BWRA) in 1946 forced separation from the Institute.

Cambridgeshire

BWRA bought Abington Hall, near

, 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 describes a state of tiredness that does not resolve with rest or sleep. In general usage, fatigue is synonymous with extreme tiredness or exhaustion that normally follows prolonged physical or mental activity. When it does not resolve ...

research commenced under Dr. Richard Weck. BWRA also occupied a house in London, 29 Park Crescent, which it converted into a

metallurgical Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

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.

Academic programmes

The Institute of Welding had bought property in London very close to the

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

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. 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 The Ministry of Technology was a department of the government of the United Kingdom, sometimes abbreviated as "MinTech". The Ministry of Technology was established by the incoming government of Harold Wilson in October 1964 as part of Wilson's am ...

, put forward no objection so a merger was agreed and a new body – The Welding Institute – was created on 28 March 1968.

Withdrawal of government funds

Direct support from Government departments ceased in the 1970s but TWI 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

In 1988 Bevan Braithwaite was appointed as chief executive of The Welding Institute.Howard Stephens
''Bevan Braithwate: Rail buff who built his own line and became a world authority on structural fatigue.''
/ref> By 2008, the organisation had opened offices and laboratories at three further sites within the UK (in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the ...

and the Advanced Manufacturing Park, South Yorkshire) and operated facilities in the

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. In 2012, it launched the National Structural Integrity Research Centre (NSIRC) for postgraduate education. By 2015, TWI had established a further UK base in Aberdeen and 12 international branches. In 2016, TWI formed the Tipper Group—" a group designed especially for women in the engineering profession." It aims to support and inspire female engineers in welding, joining and associated technologies. In February 2019, Aamir Khalid was appointed Chief Executive of TWI (the successor to Christoph Wiesner).