IIW History 1948-1958

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At present, the IIW has the following fifteen technical commissions

Commission I. Commission II. Commission III. Commission IV. Commission V. Commission VI. Commission VII. Commission VIII. Commission IX. Commission X. Commission XI. Commission XII. Commission XIII. Commission XIV. Commission XV.

Gas welding and allied processes. Arc welding. Resistance welding.

- Documentation. - Testing, measurement and control of welds. - Terminology. - Standardisation. - Hygiene and safet y . - Behaviour of metals subjected to welding. - Residual stresses and stress relieving. - Pressure vessels, boilers and pipelines. - Special arc welding processes. - Fatigue testing. - \.Velding instruction. - Fundamentals of design and fabrication for welding.

It is not necessary to describe here their respective terms of reference since the work which they have accomplished is the subj ect of a special chapter (r). vVe may however mention that each commission is under the direction of a chair– man and that each member country may be represented by one delegate (or in exceptional cases two) who may be assisted by experts. Apart from the meetings held at the annual assemblies, certain commissions hold intermediary meetings to enable them to carry out their work more rapidly; some have also, depending on the subjects with which they are dealing, set up sub-commissions or working groups with a limited membership. In that case, the results of the work accom– plished by these sub-commissions or groups, which also meet bet ween annual assemblies, are submitted for consideration at a plenary meeting of the com– mission. It is at these plenary meetings that the future programme of work of the commissions and of their sub-commissions and working groups, if any, is decided upon. The chairmen are naturally responsible for the distribution of working documents to the members of the commissions. In view of the ever-growing number of written contributions submitted by the members of the commissions, and of minutes and reports of sub-commissions and of the commissions themselves, an index system for documents has been established which enables them to be quickly identified and easily classified. This arrangement facilitates work within the IIW and is of assistance, as regards bibliographical research, to technicians who are not in direct relations with its commissions. To record the positions adopted and the decisions taken in connexion with all questions discussed at annual assemblies, each commission appoints its Drafting Committee, the function of 'IYhich is t o prepare immediately summarized minutes which are not published but to which each member can refer. On the other hand, a report for publication i prepared after each annual assembly by each chairman of commission. In these reports, the chairmen describe the \"'v'Ork: carried out since the pre– vious annual assembly and mention not only vvork which it has been decided to publish b ut also work still in hand or whicb, although completed, is not t o be published by the IIVV. Th e readers of the national reviews which publish these reports are thus informed, commission by commission, of the progress of the IIW's work. The nurnber of working documents annually considered by the commissions

(r) See Part II.