IIW History 1948-1958

COMMISSION IX

BEHAVIOUR OF METALS SUBJECTED TO WELDING

I. CONSTITUTION AND PRESENT ORGANISATION.

Commission IX as it is now results from the amalgamation, which took place in 1954, of what "·ere up to then two separate Commissions. Vi hen the II"W was founded, the list of commissions included Commission IX (Weldability) and Com– mission XII (Brittle Fractures). These two Commissions met for the first time at Delft in 1949, the first under the Chairmanship of Mr. H . G. GEERLINGS (Nether– lands) and the second under that of Mr. J. A. HARINGX (Netherlands), replacing Mr. FINN JONASSEN (U.S.A.) who was to be its Chairman. But it wa soon evident that it "ould be difficult to make two commissions responsible for studying separately a general quality of the material, that is to say its weldability, and a particular qualit y , its resistance to brittle fracture. This was proved when the Commission on ·weldability, having started to prepare a recommendation on the characteristics required for a weldable st eel, could not itself choose the brittle fracture test to be included in this recommendation and asked the appropriate Commission t o indicate, for each class of steel mentioned, a suitable test and the corresponding value to be specified. · The Brittle Fracture Commission, of which Professor E. HouDREMONT (Germany) had been appointed Chairman in 1953, was, however, of the opinion that it would be necessary to examine the whole of the text of the recommenda– tions, and not only that part on which it had been consulted. The many consultations which then took place encouraged the two Chairmen, with the agreement of all the delegates, to propose to the Governing Council in July 1953 that a single commission should be set up , which, under the title