IIW History 1990-2015

through ISO Council Resolution 19/1984 which, in effect, recognised IIW as a developer of international standards. 12 Evrard, in the first Thomas Medal Lecture in 1998, considered that ISO saw this as one way of speeding up the processing of standards. This move by ISO, naturally, was of great interest to IIW since, as well as continuing to processing standards through ISO for their development and publication (Route I), it would now be possible for IIW to also develop and submit draft standards to ISO for a vote leading directly to their publication (Route II) which was much quicker and added greater status to the work of IIW Commissions. IIW, from accounts, agreed to apply to become an ISO international standardising body in 1985 and discussions were then held with ISO, by the Chair of the Select Committee, and ISO/TC 44, regarding IIW’s potential acceptance as such a body. It was reported that all members of ISO/TC 44 were favourable with regard to IIW’s application. Such a decision would necessitate the adoption of new procedures within the IIW for drafting and approving documents intended for immediate recognition as IIW standards. 13 Granjon, in almost his last act as Chair of SC-STAND, produced the initial draft procedures before retiring at the 1986 General Assembly in Tokyo, Japan. In this regard he was succeeded by Mr Michel Bramat as the Scientific and Technical Secretary. In a departure from protocol, Bramat didn’t take over as the Chair of the SC-STAND, which was the first time that a Chair of this committee had not been selected from a member of the Scientific and Technical Secretariat. It was appropriate, though, that the Chair of SC- STAND and ISO/TC 44 became the same person again with Evrard now taking over the role of both positions. 14 At the SC-STAND meeting in Paris in January 1987 it was reported that IIW had been accepted as an ISO international standardising body in 1986 in accordance with ISO Resolution 24/1986. 15 Boyd, in his concluding words of his book on the history of IIW Joining Nations , was to commend the decision of ISO. ‘It is not surprising that, with such a record of collaboration over a long period of time, the ISO should have endorsed the IIW as a body equipped to prepare draft standards, thus indirectly recognising the quality of the work of the Commissions whose activity is the main justification for IIW’s existence.’ 16 At this point in 1988, it was estimated that some 35 current ISO standards had been produced based on drafts prepared by Commissions of IIW, although this number may have been greatly underestimated. 17 Commission III Resistance Welding, Solid State Welding and Allied Joining (C-III) had a significant number of draft standards prepared over the period 1984 to 1990, including Terms and Definitions of ResistanceWelding . These were eventually published or included as parts of ISO Standards. It is important to note that C-III had also collaborated with the CEN

SETTING THE STANDARD