IIW History 1948-1958

CHAPTER V

THE PUBLIC SESSIONS HELD AT ANNUAL ASSEMBLIES

As described in detail in chapter II, the activities of the IIW a re div ided bet ween fift een Commissions, the t erms of reference of ·which , with one excep– tion, do not cover p articular applications of welding and allied processes. The division of work bet ween the Commissions has the advantage that , for the problems considered, general solutions are found which can then be applied t o the different t ypes of welded construction . It also prevent s overlapping with certain other international organisations which deal \Nith a given t ype of con– struction, for example, the International Association fo r Bridge and Structural Engineering. H owever, the membe r societies of the II\~T a re fa r fr om indifferent t o the special problems raised in certain appli cati ons of welding. Consequently , in 1950 the Governing Council decided t o hold, in principle on the occasion of the annual assemblies, public sessions for the study of given t ypes of application, for example : boilers, bridges and structures, shipbuilding, the aircraft in– dustry, etc. In addition, the h olding of public sessions met the \Vish , expressed by the majority of countries inviting the IIW t o hold annual assemblies, t o have on the programme one item open t o all welding t echnicians, thus enabling a large number of their compatriot s to come into closer contact with the II~T than would otherwise be possible, since attendance at the working sessions of the technical Commissions is necessarily restricted. To ensure a la rger audience from among those in the host country, it was agreed a few years ago that its language, as well as the t wo offici al languages of the IIW, might be used both for the papers presented and fo r the discussions. F urthermore, since 1955 , a rrangements have been made by the host countries fo r simultaneous interpret ation at public sessions. Thus, apart from English a nd French, German was used at the 1955 and 1957 sessions held in Zurich and E ssen respectively and Spanish at the 1956 session in Madrid. The first public session was held in 1951 in Oxford , though it took a slightly different fo rm from that of later sessions because the British delegation had organ– ised an International \Velcling Congress in conjunction with the annual assembly of the IIW. All member countries were invited t o contribute t o the first t wo of the following themes, which were approved by the IIW :

l ) T he Welding of vVrou.ght L ight A lloys -

(three papers) ;

2) Welded JJridges and Structures - (three papers) ; 3) R ecent Develop1nents in Weldin;; in Great B ritain -

(three papers).