IIW History 1990-2015

of documents, publications and books on their work. By 2014 the IIW’s database for technical documents contained almost 15,000 references going back to 1948, a substantive contribution from the many experts from the 56 countries that made up IIW at that time. The 1990s had, in fact, coincided with a period in which life extension and fitness for purpose became clarion calls for extending the life of critical plant beyond its design life. The fundamentals in doing assessments of this nature were not widely understood and IIW produced an authoritative reference book IIW Guidance on Assessment of the Fitness for Purpose of Welded Structures , which was 322 pages in length and served as the preferred reference for many in the engineering community who were concerned with determining the integrity of welded structures. IIW frequently promoted its interest in issues such as this through its conferences, spreading the word, so to speak, and life assessment was to figure greatly at the IIWConference during theAnnual Assembly in Glasgow in 1993 that had as its main theme, Extending the Life of Welded Structures . The relevance of life extension in the context of welding advancement was never completely to disappear and the theme of the 2012 International Conference in Denver, almost 20 years later, was aptly Welding for Repair and Life Extension of Plant and Infrastructure . From a different perspective, Commission II Arc Welding and Filler Metals (C-II), chaired by Dr Damian Kotecki (USA), was a Commission that used ingenuity and resourcefulness to resolve the lack of availability of standard specimens (secondary standards) for the calibration of instruments to measure the amount of delta ferrite in stainless steel weldments – the previous stocks of specimens having been exhausted due to industry demand. Due to prohibitive costs in manufacturing new specimens, Commission members agreed to participate in a series of ‘round robin’ tests on centrifugally chill-cast specimens produced by Russia to establish the quality, homogeneity and suitability of these samples for secondary standards. Before production could start the economic position in Russia deteriorated significantly and an infusion of capital of around USD 65 000 was required to finance the project. ‘Where would Commission II get such a sum of money?’

implored Kotecki. ‘The solution was simple’, he said, following a suggestion by Dr Tad Boniszewski (UK). Commission II wrote letters to the various filler metal manufacturers asking for loans, interest-free and unsecured, except for a promise to repay the loans as soon as possible. 33 ‘Would these companies do this?’ was the question on many lips. They did, and a total of USD 68 500 was raised from 10 electrode manufacturing companies, plus a donation

Adolf Hobbacher

RESEARCH & INNOVATION