14 / 48
S
C
I
E
N
T
I
F
I
C
A
N
D
T
E
C
H
N
I
C
A
L
A
C
T
I
V
I
T
I
E
S
T
E
C
H
N
I
C
A
L
M
A
N
A
G
E
M
E
N
T
B
O
A
R
D
(
T
M
B
)
Dr. Luca Costa
TMB Chair
ITALY
To identify, create, develop and transfer best practices for
sustainable development in a sustainable environment.
SCIENTIFIC EXCHANGE AND
TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE
All IIW Working Units serve as global
centres of information exchange in their
respective disciplines. Each unit unites
experts and professionals from industry,
research institutes and the world’s lea-
ding universities.
About 100 IIW Working Unit events take
place every year, about half in association
with the Annual Assembly and the
remainder in intermediate sessions.
During these meetings, presentations
and discussions revolve around technical
innovations, scientific progress and stra-
tegic or standardisation issues, related
to the working programmes. Knowledge
is transferred and, of equal importance,
strong international networks are formed.
GLOBAL BEST PRACTICES
Many Units pursue ambitious pro-
grammes to develop IIW Best Practice,
Documents, IIW Recommendations and
IIW Guidelines. These documents are in
great demand to industries who unders-
tand the IIW logo to be a symbol of qua-
lity and scientific and engineering excel-
lence. They also serve as a key starting
point for new international standards and
new research fields.
The results of this work are now a part
of the common knowledge in the field
of welding, such as carbon equivalent,
preheat calculation methods, calibration
blocks for NDT, recommendations of fa-
tigue, testing methods for creep assess-
ment of materials, and many more.
STANDARDISATION
The IIW acts and is recognized as an
ISO standardisation body, with about
a third of the Working Units involved in
standardisation activities. In many cases,
draft standards are submitted to working
unit experts for comment or discussion.
Other Units have specialist groups/sub-
units working closely with ISO to develop
and draft new standards.
Common areas of activity are classifica-
tion of welding consumables, resistance
and friction stir welding, Non-destructive
evaluation of welds, health and safety.
HEALTH, SAFETY AND
ENVIRONMENT
One specialized IIW Working Unit
provides regular reports on the direct and
imminent effects of materials joining on
workers’ health and safety and its impact
on the environment. This is the unique
forum for the exchange of information
with expertise coming from different
areas, such as welding engineering,
chemistry, medicine. However, all Units
continuously contribute to the realization
of this objective via their work, notably,
by decreasing the failure rates of welded
joints through better weld inspection
and assessment, and by reducing the
use of raw materials and energy by more
efficient fabrication processes.
SIGNIFICANT HIGHLIGHTS
FROM 2014
Young professionals
Graduate students and young profes-
sionals also make outstanding contribu-
tions and the participation of these future
leaders in IIW activities is increasingly
promoted and encouraged.
IIW has a specific programme for this: in
year 2014 a first international conference
for young professionals and welding was
held, with a wide participation; during
the annual assemblies the number of
young students has been increasing
significantly in the last years, with a
significant numbers of contributions to
the activities of Working Units.
IIW Publications
The IIW flagship journal,
Welding in
the World:
The International Journal of
Materials Joining,
is where the results
of the most significant contribution get
recognition through publication and
are made available to the scientific and
industrial world.
Papers are selected, presented and dis-
cussed at the meetings of the IIW Wor-
king Units, and after reaching consensus
among the members, enter the peer
review process for the publication on
the journal. This process assures as in a
in-depth quality assessment of papers.
Consistently the journal has continued
to grow in terms of quality, amount of
papers published per issue and, mostly,
in recognition and circulation.
This is well demonstrated by the increase
of the “impact factor” the critical measure
of the scientific and technological quality
of a journal, which is reaching good levels
and is expected to grow even more what
originally forecasted.
However IIW is also active in the produc-
tion of books and booklets devoted to
specific matters, where readers can find a
comprehensive collection of highly signi-
ficant scientific content.
ANNUAL REPORT
2014
12