IIW History 1990-2015

of their technical structure with work carried out in a collective and voluntary capacity. 6 The growing importance of new processes, termed special, such as welding by electron beam, then plasma and later laser, provoked the creation of Commission IV Special Welding Processes (C-IV) in Warsaw in 1968, which was to change its name again in 1985 to become High Energy Density Welding (currently Power Beam Processes) thus placing itself at the leading edge with regard to research activities in the latest sciences involved in the welding of materials.

Wayne Thomas

Coming under the auspices of C-IV, by now, were a small number of highly specialised volunteerswhopursued a continuous taskof adapting themost advancedmethods of gathering and disseminating information to the needs of the welding community. These volunteers then formed the basis for a Study Group entitled Scientific and Technical Information . Mr Henry Granjon (France)was to commend this StudyGroupon the 40thAnniversaryof IIWin1988by saying that, ‘from a scientific point of view the collective work within the IIWwas considered to have promoted extremely valuable encounters between specialists from all over the world, who now had the opportunity to get to know one another and form mutual relationships, which may lead to collaborative exchange of information on their respective work’. 7 Commission XII (C-XII) was set up in 1955 under the name of Special Arc Welding Processes to encompass gas-shielded and submerged arc welding processes. It had a name change in 1968 to Flux and Gas- Shielded Electrical Welding Processes in order to avoid any confusion with the activities of C-IV, which had become responsible for special welding processes. Semi-automatic gas-shielded arc welding processes were rapidly brought into use in many countries during the initial period of C-XII’s life. It is now known as Arc Welding Processes and Production Systems chaired by Prof.

Dr-Eng.Yoshinori Hirata of Japan. 8 C-XII became one of IIW’s largest and most active Commissions, particularly under the chairmanship of Prof. Bill Lucas (UK), ably supported by Prof. John Norrish (Australia) and Mr Bertil Pekkari (Sweden). Its sphere of influence extended to the development of more sophisticated arc welding processes, such as controlled power sources, sensor and electronic technology, automation and robotisation, together with computer technology employed in CAD/CAM and expert systems. 9 By 1990 IIW and its Commissions had assembled more of the greatest minds and experts in these fields than possible anywhere else in the world. The Annual Assemblies were always the focal point of the Commissions and other Working Units, where decisions were made and discussions held on collaboration and the latest

Bill Lucas

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