News

Welding Institute Member and TWI Senior Project Leader, Josh Barras has been named as one of the next 101 Future Leader Fellowship awardees by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

The Future Leaders Fellowship is a cross-UK research and innovation scheme established to support early career researchers and innovators through providing awardee fellows with an investment of between £400,000 and £1.5 million over an initial four years. This grant aims to support the Fellows’ new challenging and novel projects whilst also providing support for the development of their own career.

Josh Barras is a Member of The Welding Institute and also a Senior Project Leader at TWI, where he specialises in the experimental research of laser metal deposition (LMD) coating and 3D printing technology in TWI’s laser additive manufacturing section.

The Welding Institute would like to congratulate Josh on his achievement in being named as a Fellow of the Future Leader Fellowship scheme!

President of The Welding Institute and Director of Operations and Technology for Air at BAE Systems, Dave Holmes has been awarded an OBE for services to the aerospace manufacturing industry.

Dave started his career as an apprentice at BAE Systems over 35 years ago and has since progressed his career to become the Manufacturing Director for the Air Sector. He joined The Welding Institute in 2019 and took the role of President, a role that he has used to support our Members, especially over the previous months. 

The Welding Institute would like to congratulate Dave on being awarded an OBE and also thank him for the work and support he offers to the Institute through his presidency!

The Welding Institute’s Teesside and Northumbria Branches will be hosting a webinar for their Branch Members which will look at the sub-surface machining technique, ‘CoreFlowTM,’ on the 19 October, 2020.

The webinar will look at ‘CoreFlowTM,’ a highly disruptive, new sub-surface machining technique invented by TWI Ltd. The talk will explore this revolutionary new technology and its potential uses in heat exchangers, cooling systems and other systems.

The talk will be delivered by TWI Principal Project Leader in Friction and Forge Processes and Welding Institute Member, João Gandra (MWeldI Interim CEng). João’s experience within Friction Welding expands across both academic and industrial environments, with him also having published over 20 peer-reviewed publications and conference papers.

The Eastern Counties Branch will be hosting a Member only webinar on, ‘The Denver Sluice Complex,’ specifically for the Members of their Branch. Guest speaker and Superintendent at Denver Complex, Daniel Pollard, will be delivering this webinar on 14 October, 2020.

The webinar will look at the Denver Sluice Complex and its role in water management and protection of the people of the Fens, their properties and low-lying land from flooding. The complex is located at the confluent of five watercourses and was initially constructed in the mid-1600s. This event will also explore the current systems of sluices and structures that the Environment Agency, who are responsible for the Denver Complex’s management, continues to put in place.

The Welding Institute (Southern Counties Branch) will be hosting a webinar on ‘Inspecting Big Ben and other experiences in NDT,’ where guest speaker and former President of the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT), Caroline Bull (HonFInstNDT, CEng and MAPM) will be presenting. The webinar will take place on 17 September, 2020 at 7:00pm.

First starting her career in Non-Destructive Testing at the age of 17, Caroline has extensive experience and knowledge in the testing and analysis technique of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT). Throughout her career, she has contributed and worked on multiple research programmes and completed NDT inspections globally including the inspection of ‘Big Ben’ in the Houses of Parliament.

The webinar will include a reflection on Caroline’s previous experiences working within NDT, including her role within a team responsible for carrying out and completing the prestigious inspection of Big Ben. She will also talk about her NDT research and service work and additionally will look at her time as a Past President of BINDT.

To find out more about the webinar and how to register please click here.

Please note: if you previously attempted to register and were unsuccessful, please try again as the IT related issue has now been resolved.

Andrew Halliday is a Technician Member (TechWeldI) of The Welding Institute and is also professionally registered as an Engineering Technician with the Engineering Council. He has been a Member of The Welding Institute for over 20 years and is also a Member of our Northumbrian Branch.

Through his participation in The Welding Institute’s recent continuous professional development (CPD) audit, Andrew has provided us with his personal advice with respect to the completion of his own CPD and the benefits and value he gains through the process of carrying it out.

Andrew explained that, with regard to his approach to maintaining his CPD, he takes the attitude that “you are never too old to learn something new,” adding that, “I’ve held managerial and supervisory positions that have included Civil, E&I, and coating disciplines, which are beyond my own expertise, so I endeavour to learn as much as I can.” He continued by saying that, as a result of this, it has enabled him to be confident in maintaining “the required oversite of the Inspectors that I am responsible for.” Another important aspect of Andrew’s statement regarding his completion of CPD, is the importance of completing both new and refresher training courses. Andrew explained that he is “also a great believer in taking any refresher training for the disciplines that I am certified for,” continuing on that, “this has proved beneficial in achieving successful recertification and gaining updated knowledge related to industry changes and awareness of Industry Code revisions.”

As a Member of The Welding Institute, you are able to benefit from a 5% discount on all TWI Training and Examination courses, with the opportunity to gain 2 CPD points per hour of attendance of a course that you have completed (variations in CPD points available are dependent on course types, please find a copy of our CPD Guidance leaflet which is available to our Members through our Member Portal here where further guidance and illustration of the different points for different activities is available).

Madie Allen (AWedlI) delivered a successful presentation on ‘Predicting the Microstructure of Additively Manufactured Parts,’ as a guest speaker in July.

During the talk, Madie discussed the ability and process of additive manufacturing (AM) to enable complex and highly optimised parts to be produced. Madie also shared an insight into how she became interested in mathematical modelling and its application in predicting the microstructure of additively manufactured parts.

The talk was very well received with those in attendance giving positive feedback, including one attendee saying that, “it was brilliant and definitely something to be repeated.”

Madie, who is a TWI Project Leader and a National Structural Integrity Research Centre (NSIRC) student at Brunel University London sponsored by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, will be presenting this webinar. View Madie’s NSIRC student profile and research here!

The Welding Institute’s Members can view her talk via the Member Portal. We would encourage any non-Members who enjoyed the talk and would like access to this Member benefit to join us!

The UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC) has been revised with the Engineering Council releasing the fourth edition on the 31 August, 2020, which is set to be implemented by the 31 December 2021.

The UK-SPEC establishes and sets out the competence and commitment required for registration with the Engineering Council as an Engineering Technician (EngTech), Incorporated Engineer (IEng) or Chartered Engineer (CEng).

To find out more and access a copy of the fourth edition of UK-SPEC, please see the Engineering Council’s website here.

The British Standards Institution (BSI) will be running a free online webinar for engineers and personnel associated with/working in every aspect of design, build and management of residential buildings, including higher risk residential buildings (HRRBs), on the 24 September, 2020.

The Competence Steering Group (CSG) was formed following Dame Judith Hackitt’s ‘Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety’ with the aim of taking forward its recommendations for safety improvement. The CSG published the interim report, ‘Raising the Bar’ in August 2019, with over 150 Institutions and 300 professionals contributing to the report.

The webinar will look at one of the recommendations from this report, creating a national standard suite of standards and supporting documents.

Leading the development of this suite of standards, BSI will deliver the webinar and launch the first consultation of the new standard, ‘Built Environment – Overarching Competence Framework - Specification.’

Read more about the webinar including details of how to register here. 

Ofqual have released an open consultation regarding the arrangements for the assessment and awarding of vocational, technical and other general qualifications from 2020 to 2021.

The open consultation is a follow on proposal for extending the extraordinary regulatory framework, with the consultation closing date set to be on 20 September 2020.

The proposed arrangements of the open consultation apply to all regulated qualifications excluding GCSEs, AS and A levels, and end-point assessments (EPAs). The arrangement aims to mitigate the disruption to teaching, learning and assessments in order to give learners the opportunity to achieve fair results from 2020 to 2021 and prevent disadvantaging to them through longer term impacts of the pandemic.

To find out more and have your say, please click here to see the Government’s official page for this Open Consultation.