IIW History 1948-1958

PART I

CHAPTER I THE FOUNDATION AND OBJECTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF WELDING The fou ndati on of the I nterna tional I nstitute of \Velding in 1948 was t he r esult of st riking successes in the application of \Yelding. Confronted with the t echnical problems raised at each stage in its development, which was rich in discoveries and from which many lessons were t o be learned , sp ecialist s in the different countries concerned felt t he need t o excha nge information and t o meet fo r discussion ; many personal contacts had already shown that there \Vas a ma rked desire t o \York t ogether at a n international level so as t o link and coo r– dinate exertions which , though often resulting in b rillia nt successes within the diffe rent countries, were being made quite independently of each other. F or a long time, rema rkable examples of welded construction a nd a consi– derable t echnical literature had shown that welding, t ogether with ma ny allied processes such as oxygen cutting, allowed the engineer t o achieve b older solutions a nd opened up fresh possibilities t o him. Welding enabled him to think out new a nd simplified designs, to make the best use of the properties of the metals em– ployed and of sections ; what h e designed was lighter a nd more elegant , easily satisfying the requirements of eco nomy in the use of materials, of logic in design a nd of speed in fabrication ; welded product s oft en proved t h emselves more functional - vehicles , for inst ance, t h rough the reduction in their dead weight , or ships through their lesser res ist a nce to the wat er. These new developments had favourable effect s on the eco nomy of industry in general, leading t o an appreciable decrease in the amount s which had to be invest ed in construction and equipment and to a fast er flow of work through the shops : these in turn necessitat ed far-re aching cha nges in the structure of en– gineering. In ma ny countries, industrial and public undertakings h ad carried out pioneer work and h ad sifted out much data on these problems, the syst ematic st udy of which they had entrust ed to « Institut es of Welding >l or simila r learned