IIW History 1990-2015

on the development of international standards for resistance welding, where none existed before. It was not until 1 December 1990 that the first ISO standard recommended by IIW as an international standardising body was published, based on the work of Commission II Arc Welding (ISO 10446:1990). A second IIW standard by C-III (ISO 10447:1990) was published on 1 July 1991. There was some expectation that the IIW logo would be incorporated into these two standards, as agreed with ISO, but this was unfortunately omitted. These would be the last IIW standards produced for many years until 2000. 18 The relationship with CEN did cause conflict in the early deliberations of SC-STAND and there was some concern also regarding the relationships between IIW, CEN and ISO, since the CEN was focused more directly on standards that were mandatory in Europe whereas IIW’s and ISO’s focus was on the implementation of international standards. This had the potential for complications and differences between standards. Reportedly, it was agreed, unofficially, by all three standards authorities, to collaborate on the development of welding standards. This was not to lessen the problems that IIW faced in the preparation of standards that had to meet the exacting criteria imposed by ISO. Certainly IIW did lack the requisite skills in writing standards to the ISO format and, despite ISO granting a further three-year renewal period regarding IIW’s status as a standardising body, the expectations that this would improve did not eventuate and no further IIW ISO standards were produced in the interim. Following the signing of the Vienna Agreement in 1991 a meeting was organised to envisage a tripartite agreement between ISO, CEN and IIW. 19 In respect of the Vienna Agreement, CEN negotiated much more favourable terms with ISO than IIW had earlier as

ISO/TC 44

ISO Council Resolution 19/1984

Vienna Agreement 1991

IIW International Institute of Welding

CEN/TC 121 European Committee for Standardization

Tripartite agreement between IIW, CEN and ISO

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