News

Our Polymers and Composites Technical Group will be hosting their first online Technical Group event of the year, from 9:30am – 12:30pm (UK time) on the 30 March 2023.

The event, which is titled, ‘Polymers and Composites in Oil and Gas and Energy Transition Applications’ will explore the diverse range of applications that use polymers and composites and why these special materials are selected. It will provide insight into the range of fluids and the harsh environments in which they must endure and perform reliably.

The webinar will also touch on some recent developments, and how polymers and composites can play a role as we transition from traditional oil and gas to a cleaner hydrogen economy.

Who Should Attend?

Anyone who is interested in learning about how and why polymers and composites are used in oil, gas and energy transition applications.

Speakers and Presentations:

• Phil Berry, General Manager - Market Development, Future Pipe Industries (FPi) - 'Scale and diversity of composite pipes'
• Dr Abderrazak Traïdia, Science Specialist and R&D Programme Lead, Aramco - 'Success and barriers to polymers and composites in O&G applications'
• Dr Ramin Moslemian, Principal Consultant, Energy Systems, Offshore Infrastructures, DNV - 'Polymers and composites in the hydrogen economy'
• Dr Bernadette Craster, Technology Fellow, TWI Ltd - 'The harsh environments that polymers and composites can endure'

FULL EVENT AND REGISTRATION DETAILS

As part of the 100 years anniversary celebrations, we are revisiting parts of our century long history – including an artefact from the early days of the Institute!

71 years ago, in 1952, former wartime Minister for Food, Lord Woolton opened a new Fatigue Testing Laboratory at TWI’s Abington site.

Over our 100 year history, The Welding Institute has evolved from a small institution uniting 20 acetylene welders with electric arc welding engineers to now being the leading engineering institution supporting welding and joining professionals.

A landmark in our history was our appointment as a Professional Engineering Institution, licenced by the Engineering Council. We wanted to take this opportunity to explore our unique relationship with the Engineering Council and, additionally, the importance of this milestone.

What is the Engineering Council?

As the UK regulatory body for the engineering profession, the Engineering Council holds national registers for over 228,00 engineers and technicians.

The internationally recognised standards of professional competence and ethics that govern the award and retention of these titles are set and maintained by the Engineering Council, ensuring employers, government and wider society, both nationally and internationally, can be confident in the knowledge, experience and commitments of those holding professional registration titles.

What is The Welding Institute’s relationship with the Engineering Council?

As a professional engineering institution, The Welding Institute was granted licence from the Engineering Council in 1996 to assess candidates for inclusion on the national register of professional engineers and technicians, including the titles:

Engineering Technician (EngTech) 

Incorporated Engineer (IEng) 

Chartered Engineer (CEng)

With currently over 42.5% of our Members being professionally registered, The Welding Institute continues to work closely with the Engineering Council through professional registration and is licenced to carry out the process for accreditation and approval of educational programmes.

A key element of the Engineering Council’s role as the regulator for the UK engineering profession is to set and maintain the standards for professional registration. This includes setting the criteria that education programmes must meet to become ‘accredited’ or ‘approved.’ Prospective students, employers and society have the assurance that accredited or approved programmes meet the standards set by the engineering profession.

Benefits of Professional Registration and Membership with The Welding Institute

Professional Recognition: professional registration evidences to others that you are competent due to the skills that you have demonstrated to the Engineering Council and, in turn, can lead to professional recognition from peers including employers, employees and clients.

International recognition: your professional registration status is an internationally recognised title.

Exposure to career opportunities: our membership benefits, that you gain access to through professional registration, can help you to progress within your career. For example, with our new exclusive Jobsite, which provides access to around 550 trusted companies offering relevant jobs in the welding, joining and allied technologies industries.

Build new networks: by becoming professionally registered, you join a growing community, enabling you to become connected with peers and colleagues and other likeminded professionals.

Industry Influence: as a professionally registered engineer or technician, you will be - or will be beginning to - take on responsibilities that support the development of other professionals. The knowledge and experience you gain from this can help you to gain greater influence within your industry.

Don’t just take our word for it – hear from our Members how it’s supported them:

“The fact that my experience is peer-reviewed speaks volumes. Not having a full bachelor’s degree could automatically make me exempt from some job roles. However, having IEng status shows that I can still work at that level using my experience.” - Carl Lavis IEng MWeldI IWS/EWS

"I believe it is important to be acknowledged by my peers; mainly for recognition of competence, commitment and evidence of expertise" - Jade White BSc BEng (Hons) CEng MWeldI EWE/IWE

Considering Professional Membership and Registration?

If you’re interested in learning more about professional membership and registration, or beginning your journey to become professionally registered, find out more or speak to our membership team!

Although TWI Ltd and The Welding Institute are separate entities, there remains a level of cross-over between the two organisations, as demonstrated by Fellow CEng Alan Gifford, who related the story of how he, as a Professional Member, was influential in bringing non-destructive testing needs to the attention of TWI Ltd.

As part of our centenary celebrations, The Institute reached out to Alan, who was working for Internal Combustion Ltd at the time of this tale, to take up the story for us here:

"In the mid-1960s we (International Combustion Ltd) had accepted a contract to supply a 140 ton boiler drum in 4.5 inch (110mm) thick low alloy steel for an overseas client who, in turn, had appointed a British inspection body to oversee the manufacture and testing.

We had, as an error of judgement, also unfortunately accepted a 100% ultrasonic testing procedure of the seams to an exacting ultra-high sensitivity scan.

The circumferential welds were made by submerged arc welding, with pre-heat of 100°C minimum.

When the ultrasonic testing was performed under the surveillance of a very diligent inspector, numerous very small inclusions were found.

The repair of these ‘flaws’ was by excavating a groove up to 4” (100mm) deep, preheating and then hand welding to execute the repair.

This was a very costly, technically unnecessary and time consuming operation.

In addition, the drum was occupying an already planned, big area of shop floor space.

We appealed to the client for a relaxation of the standard but, as we later found out, he did not require the drum due a change of programme.

Whilst this was in hand we came across a similar reflector in a welded test plate associated with one of the seams.

By careful cutting and machining we managed to expose the fault - it was a very small slag inclusion (maybe 1.5mm across the section) and about 80mm from the outer surface and it would have required a big excavation.

I showed the section to my directors to try and explain the numerus repairs, ‘What does the BWRA Institute think?’ I was asked.

So a meeting was set up with Doctor Richard Weck, who was the boss there at that time.

A colleague and I soon headed to Cambridge and duly explained our problem.

Dr Weck said that TWI did not deal with non-destructive testing as it was the role of the NDT specialists.

I said NDE was an integral part of manufacture and then produced the polished and etched section and asked him to comment on it.

His bushy eyebrows twitched and he studied it for maybe couple of minutes and said, ‘That looks a very good weld.’

I then said but that is a reject and pointed out the inclusion.

I cannot recall his exact words, but they were not very complementary, and then he sent for a young Tim Jessop who, as I recall, was the most NDE-minded person there and said to him, ‘Can you really find defects as small as that?’

Tim said something like, ‘Yes, at high sensitivity, I suppose’

‘Then we must know more about NDE here’ doctor Weck replied.

Thereafter, NDE testing of welds was on the agenda at TWI.

But, as far as our client was concerned, no relaxation was offered, since he did not want the drum to be delivered.

So we had to do all this work, which did nothing to improve the product.

I, for one, was more than happy when we were finally able to ship the drum and I kept that section for many years but eventually lost it.”

- Alan F Gifford CEng, FWeldI

So, while the work may not have helped International Combustion Ltd with their client at the time, it was influential in progressing NDT at TWI Ltd, creating an important part of the business ever since!

For those in the European Commission’s consultation, the EWF (European Federation for Welding, Joining and Cutting) and IIW (International Institute of Welding) would like to ask its members, partners, and experts to give their input on the effect of new Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) for workers exposed to harmful elements, including welding fumes. Your input will be valuable in shaping the consultation’s outcome. If you are a member, partner, or expert of EWF and IIW, please consider participating in the survey and contributing towards the consultation process.

A questionnaire is available on the survey webpage for companies to fulfil – this will aid assessing the actions to follow for you and your industry. On the same webpage, there is a letter to support from the European Commission, alongside the privacy policy.

Complete the survey here

The deadline for completing the questionnaire is Friday 3rd March 2023.

You can contact EWF or IIW for any requests or clarification needed on the subject.

Recent research into The Welding Institute has unearthed some previously unidentified, yet interesting connections between the D-Day landings, the Institute, and the start of what became the entire modern offshore oil and gas industry.

Background

To set the scene, we need to go back to 1942 when The Welding Institute was known as The Institute of Welding (see our ‘Celebrating 100 Years of The Welding Institute’ article for more details on how the Institute developed over the years) and plans were beginning for what would become ‘Operation Overlord,’ the Allied military operation that began on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) and led to the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II.

D-Day itself saw 160,000 troops crossing the English Channel and landing on the beaches of Normandy, soon to be followed by more Allied troops and vehicles in the following days and weeks. In order to maintain the momentum of the invasion following the first landing, it was necessary to keep forces supplied with fuel for their vehicles.

Supply and Demand?

Coastal tankers could have been used, but they can be delayed by poor weather, are exposed to attack from the air, and need to be offloaded onshore into vulnerable storage tanks.

As the British War Office estimated lubricants, oil and petrol would account for over 60% of the weight of supplies needed by the expeditionary forces, subsea pipelines were seen as the best solution.

At this point in the 1940s, submarine pipelines had been used by ports and over short distances, but they had never before been deployed in the tidal conditions and over the distances required to span the English Channel. To add to the challenge, the entire pipeline needed to be deployed in a single night so as to reduce the possibility of enemy or tidal interference as the pipes were laid.

Creating and deploying these pipelines quickly and effectively was the challenge to be met by Operation PLUTO (Pipeline Under The Ocean or Pipeline Underwater Transportation of Oil).

An engineer visiting the Petroleum Warfare Department at the time proposed the use of a single, continuous length of armoured pipeline that was similar to a subsea communications cable with the core and insulation removed, yet able to withstand high internal pressures. The use of additional lines would increase capacity and it was felt using high pressures would allow for different types of fuel to be carried.

‘Hais’ and ‘Hamel’

Operation PLUTO led to the creation of two different pipeline designs, ‘Hais’ and ‘Hamel,’ named for their inventors.

The Hais solution used an existing undersea telegraph cable design to create a 2-inch pipe made from extruded lead. The lead was surrounded by a layer of asphalt and paper that had been impregnated with vinylite resin. This layer was covered in steel tape, followed by a layer of jute tape and asphalt impregnated paper, before a final protective layer of 50 galvanised steel wires and a camouflaged canvas cover. Several tests were carried out on the Hais pipe and it was decided to increase the diameter to 3-inches, thereby doubling the amount of petrol that could be pumped compared to the 2-inch pipe. This pipe could be coiled in the hull of a pipe-laying ship ready for deployment, but because lead was in short supply, an alternative pipe was sought that used cheaper and more readily-available materials.

The chief engineer of the Burmah Oil Company, Bernard J. Ellis, proposed the use of mild steel to create an alternative, flexible 3.5-inch diameter pipe and teamed up with the Iraq Petroleum Company’s chief engineer, H. A. Hammick, to create the ‘Hamel’ pipe.

Unlike the Hais pipe, the Hamel pipe was too stiff to be coiled up and deployed by ship, so, instead, it was wound around a buoyant steel drum (so it would not twist along the longitudinal axis) called a ‘Conundrum’ (or ‘Conun’).

It is this conundrum-deployed Hamel pipe that has ties to the Institute of Welding, as it was joined using flash butt welding, with Stewarts and Lloyds supplying 40-foot (12 metre) lengths of pipe and designing, constructing and operating two factories at Tilbury to weld them into 4,000 foot (1,200 metre) long segments.

Research Expertise and The Institute of Welding

The creation of the Hamel pipe has its roots in research work undertaken by a committee of The Institute of Welding started in 1938. This research assessed flash butt welding, electric arc welding and oxy-acetylene welding as methods for joining pipes, and was reported in a paper on ‘Pressure Pipe Welding’ mentioned in the Institute’s quarterly transactions in 1941. This was quickly followed by two more papers that became the important underpinning work upon which the Hamel pipe solution was built.

But this was not just a fortunate coincidence, as the Institute of Welding acknowledged Stewarts and Lloyds in relation to work to develop flash butt welding. Both flash butt welding and oxy-acetylene welding can also clearly be seen in a film from the time about the development of the Hamel pipe, with both techniques researched having been assessed for pipe welding by the Institute.

It is clear that The Institute of Welding was involved in the core of early development work (nowadays covered by Technology Readiness Levels 3-6), with this important research enabling Stewarts and Lloyds to manufacture Operation PLUTO’s Hamel pipelines.

Operation PLUTO Pumping Stations

Camouflaged pumping stations were established at Sandown on the Isle of Wight and at Dungeness on the Kent coast. These pumping stations were disguised as seaside villas and cottages, old forts and amusement parks, while lorry drivers were told to call from public phone boxes to receive their delivery instructions.

At the other end of the pipelines, the Sandown pipe was to be connected to the port at Cherbourg and Dungeness was to be connected to the port at Ambleteuse (later changed to Boulogne). Maintaining the Walt Disney theme of Operation PLUTO, the Sandown pipeline was codenamed ‘Bambi’ and the Dungeness pipeline, ‘Dumbo.’ Meanwhile, a fake oil dock was built across 3 acres at Dover, codenamed Operation Fortitude and even ‘inspected’ by King George VI, and the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower as well as ground forces commander, General Sir Bernard Montgomery.

Deployment and Operation

The deployment of Bambi began on 12 August 1944, with the Hais pipe being deployed first, followed by a Hamel pipe on 27 August. However, both of these first attempts suffered failures. Finally, on 22 September, a Hais pipe was successfully deployed, delivering 56,000 imperial gallons (250,000 litres) per day. On 29 September the Hamel pipe solution was successfully installed, but an increase in pressure from 50 to 70 bar on 3 October caused both pipelines to fail – Hais due to a faulty coupling and Hamel due to a sharp edge on the ocean floor. Bambi was cancelled the next day, having delivered just 935,000 imperial gallons (4,250,000 litres) of fuel.

Dumbo was more successful, with a Hais line deployed and beginning operation on 26 October 1944, where it remained in operation until the end of the war. The Hamel pipe was adapted with the Hais solution added at each end and the pipeline was extended to reach Calais by November so as to take advantage of better railway connections there. By December, nine 3-inch and two 2-inch Hamel pipelines along with four 3-inch and two 2-inch Hais pipelines had been laid, providing 1,300 tons of petrol per day. As was expected, the Hamel pipelines required some repairs during service but the Hais pipelines did not break during service, although plans to increase the pressure to carry aviation spirit as well were scrapped. Dumbo’s 17 pipelines were finally shut down on 7 August 1945, having carried 180 million imperial gallons (820 million litres) of petrol.

In total, Operation PLUTO successfully delivered around 8% of petroleum products from the UK to the Allied forces in North West Europe at an estimated cost of £4,428,000.

85% of the pipeline was salvaged and scrapped between September 1946 and October 1949, the value of the recovered lead and steel (not to mention 75,000 imperial gallons of fuel still in the pipelines) exceeded the cost of recovery at an estimated value of £400,000.

Outcomes

There has been some debate among historians as to the value of Operation PLUTO for the war effort, especially the less-than-successful Bambi pipeline.

However, the impact of the work undertaken for the operation can be felt reverberating down the decades since, not least with the establishment of pipe welding, pipe coiling and large scale subsea pipeline laying.

These core technologies, developed in part due to the work of The Institute of Welding, enabled offshore oil and gas exploitation, which became a cornerstone of the work of the Institute and TWI in the 1960s and 70s.

While the focus of those involved in Operation PLUTO was to help win World War II, they could not have possibly have known that there innovative work would lead to future peacetime applications that progressed the oil and gas industry over the coming years.

This video, produced by Stewarts and Lloyds at the time, clearly shows the testing and production of the Hamel pipeline solution that the Institute was influential in developing.

As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Welding Institute, we spoke with some of our Professional Members about their career memories, uncovering some interesting stories that we want to share with you as part of our centenary celebrations.

We received a message from long-standing friend and Member of the Institute, Fellow CEng Alan Gifford, who went on to tell us the story of what could be the world’s first-ever welded pressure vessel - as well as kindly donating a unique replica of this piece of engineering history to The Welding Institute!

Here, Alan tells us the story in his own words:

“We all take welding, especially of pressure vessels, almost for granted, but there had to be a first one to be welded and pressure tested.

“Back in 1961, I was welding engineer at International Combustion Ltd (ICL), one of the UK’s seven boilermakers, and they were licensees of the multinational American company Combustion Engineering (CE) with its headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. CE, as indeed was ICL.

“CE’s main boiler plant was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and it was deemed desirable that I went asap to learn how they had such a massive output of both boilers and super heaters.

“On my visit to their laboratories I went past a small cylindrical pressure vessel mounted on a steel plinth. From memory it was about 5’0” long and 30” in diameter with two semi ellipsoid ends. I enquired what it was and was told it was the first all-welded pressure vessel ever made. Corbin Chapman, the then chief metallurgist at CE, gave me, as a memento, a very small replica of the vessel mounted on a wooden base. There was a plaque attached which reads:

CE

First All Welded Boiler Drum

Tested May 2, 1930

CE Combustion Engineering

Energy Systems Worldwide

“I retained this as a desk ornament through the next 45 years whilst I followed a variety of welding associated roles in the company until I retired in 1993 and it came home with me, still sitting on my desk. As I now approach 94, I felt it needed to be preserved and so sought more information on the item. Throughout my career I have maintained contact with one of the welding engineers who I met on that first visit – J C Campbell. I emailed him and asked if he knew any more about the manufacture of the vessel.

“He responded to say, ‘It was on display when I started at CE in 1950 and was hand stick welded by a guy called Amaziah Jones Moses –who went on to become VP/GM of the Chattanooga plant. It was hydro tested to failure. The welds did not fail but the manway cover on one of the ends leaked first - at well over the calculated pressure,’ adding, ‘you have made my day full of nostalgia!’ I believe it was done under ASME observation, but not approved by them at that time.

So, as The Welding Institute celebrates its 100th year of life, it seemed right and proper that I should donate there - otherwise it would probably be in a dustbin when I am no longer the keeper!”

Call for Presentations for the 2023 Meeting to be held at TWI Abington

The 2023 intermediate meeting for IIW Commission C-XI Pressure Vessels, Boilers and Pipelines will be held as a hybrid meeting on 17 and 18 May 2023 hosted at TWI Ltd Abington.

The themes of this meeting include:

This meeting is to bring together experts and stakeholders in the field to discuss the latest developments and advancements in the above topics, and to explore potential opportunities for collaboration and partnership, share knowledge and insights, and to network with other professionals in the field. The target audience will be all IIW members and colleagues who are working or interested in the relevant areas from around the world.

Registration for the meeting is free. For those who plan to present at the meeting, please send the title or topic of your presentation and your short bio to Prof. Sujun Wu and Dr. Xing Sun (the Chair and Vice Chair of IIW C-XI) using the emails below, before 1st March 2023:

sujun.wu@iiwelding.net or wusj@buaa.edu.cn

xing.sun@iiwelding.net or xing.sun@twi.co.uk

1 9 2 3  -  2 0 2 3

This year, The Welding Institute celebrates the 100th anniversary since its establishment in 1923 as ‘The Institution of Welding Engineers.’

Our formation as a professional engineering institution, supporting the development of Members in the fields of welding, joining and allied technologies has enabled us to act as a voice for industry, providing authoritative guidance to bodies including the British Standards Institution, the Engineering Council and the UK government.

Licensed by the Engineering Council, we are an independent body promoting and advancing the welding, joining and allied technologies engineering disciplines. The Welding Institute is licensed by the Engineering Council to assess Professional Members in becoming professionally registered as Chartered Engineers (CEng), Incorporated Engineers (IEng) or Engineering Technicians (EngTech).

Foundations

The formation of The Welding Institute began with the establishment of ‘The Institution of Welding Engineers,’ on the 26 January 1923 with a meeting between 20 men at the Holborn Restaurant in London. The Institution of Welding Engineers united acetylene welders with engineers engaged in electric arc welding and was later formally registered under the Companies Act in February 1923.

The Institution set forward aims to ‘advance and develop the science and practice of welding,’ which included activities such as the reading of papers and lectures, the establishing of welding schools, the drawing up of recommendations and regulations for the welding industry and, additionally, the promotion of related legislation.

Over the following ten years, the Institute’s income grew to £800 per year and our number of Members reached 600.

Library

The library has been a continuous thread throughout the Institute’s history, enabling our Members to explore and share their own personal and professional knowledge.

It has and continues to be a necessary pillar within the Institute with the modern adaptation to all publications being made accessible online. The library archive stretches back to the 1920s, with a commitment to excellence being carried out since then. This has materialised with the library staff being information professionals, always ready and willing to aid Members in their research. They aim to bridge the link and enable Members to make informed decisions using the library’s extensive resources.

Merger

In 1935, 12 years after forming, the Institution merged with the British Advisory Welding Council, becoming ‘The Institute of Welding.’ This merger enabled for a ‘wider and more comprehensive programme of work’ to be conducted whilst additionally addressing the ‘pressing demands of all branches of engineering for guidance in welding matters.’ It also further enabled companies to become Members of the Institute, as well as individuals.

Welding Research

Within its new, wider scope, the Institute’s Welding Research Council was formed in 1937, providing ‘status and recognition for the valuable work of the research committees and the standing of their personnel.’ Within this year, the Institute was awarded three grants by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to support welding research.

However, despite the Institute’s new scope of work, it didn’t actually have its own laboratories, therefore meaning that work was primarily supported by UK universities.

Split

With professional institutions debarred from being able to also act as research organisations, in 1946, the Institute was forced to split. This led to the formation of the British Welding Research Association (BWRA) as a separate body to The Welding Institute.

The current headquarters of The Welding Institute and TWI, near Cambridge, were also bought in 1946 by the BWRA with the purchase of Abington Hall. Operations were much smaller back then, with the welding shop operating from stables adjoined to the Hall and fatigue research being conducted in a former army hut on the site. The BWRA also owned a residence at 29 Park Crescent in London, which later became the metallurgical laboratory; the butler’s pantry served as the polishing room and the coachman’s quarters hosted the machine shop.

During the Institute’s silver jubilee year of 1948, a Grants of Arms was awarded to the Institute, featuring a coat of arms depicting the formation of a joint with heat and the Latin motto, ‘out of two, one.’

Training and Certification

A growing demand for training courses on welding design and construction resulted in the creation of a course on the welding of pressure vessels in 1957.

Hosted at a property near the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, the success of this first course was exemplified by the 100 applications exceeding the course’s 40 places. This quickly led to more courses being organised and, by the early 1960s, the training school had hosted over 300 visiting lecturers.

1965 saw the formation of the School of Applied Non-Destructive Testing by the BWRA and the Non-Destructive Society of Great Britain. The new school pioneered formal training in further disciplines including ultrasonic weld testing and radiographic interpretation, leading to the foundation of what would become CSWIP, the Certification Scheme for Welding and Inspection Personnel and TWI Certification.

Reunification: The Modern Institute is Created

With the realisation that both The Institute of Welding and the BWRA’s activities would serve industry better as a ‘single voice for welding technology,’ 1968 saw both bodies merge once more. In the March of 1968 ‘The Institute of Welding’ was renamed as ‘The Welding Institute’ – forming our current Institute.

We have since continued to serve and support our global network of Members’ professional development with the aim to ‘promote professionalism, and the advancement of knowledge, in welding, joining and allied technologies.’

Join us as we celebrate 100 Years of The Welding Institute!

As signatories of Tomorrow’s Engineers Code, we are pleased to say that The Code has reached an important milestone now, with over 250 Members having pledged to increase the diversity and number of young people entering the engineering and technology industry and embarking on their careers!

Launched in 2020, the Tomorrow’s Engineers Code is managed and delivered by EngineeringUK, for the engineering community, to bring together organisations by working towards common goals. As a signatory of The Code, The Welding Institute has made four pledges to:

inspire connection

drive inclusion

showcase engineering

improve the impact of their engineering outreach

Find out more about Tomorrow’s Engineering Code or get involved.