IIW History 1990-2015

fields. The Houdremont Lecture, commemorating Prof. Edouard Houdremont (Germany), was an opportunity for an important address at an Annual Assembly International Conference by a distinguished person in a certain field associated with welding and its processes. The Houdremont Lecture in 1994 by Prof. Dr-Ing. Paul Drews from the European Centre of Mechatronics, Aachen, Germany, provided an ideal opportunity to raise attention to latest research developments, including the increasing impact of microelectronics and information technology on welding engineering, as well as the design processes that were substantially influencing the move towards higher

Paul Drews

levels of productivity, weld quality, flexibility, functionality, operational precision and cost- effectiveness in welding. 20 The Portevin Lecture is also given at International Conferences associated with Annual Assemblies, on alternate years to the Houdremont Lecture. This lecture, also by an invited expert, was established to commemorate Prof. Albert Marcel Portevin (France) who was an outstanding researcher in most areas of metallurgy and a founding Vice-President of IIW. Many of the microjoining, or microwelding, processes can be traced back to the 1950s when a capacitor discharge machine was introduced for welding of orthodontic appliances. Microjoining received a further boost when thermocompression of wire bonding was developed by Bell Laboratories in 1957. These techniques were the forerunners to microjoining applications commonly used today with processes such as electron beam welding, and having applications in macro-, micro- and nano-scale joining technology because of microjoining’s precise beam quality and associated integrated controls. 21 Resulting from such innovations, many important advances in welding technology have subsequently been associated with nanotechnology and theminiaturisation of components and systems, essential for the manufacture of electronic, precision and medical instruments. Drews’ comments were to illustrate that modern welding engineering had now become a synergy of different engineering activities. The past years of manual welding fabrication were now being replaced by automated production processes in many industrial applications including the automotive industry, shipbuilding, aeronautics, construction and the many other activities where eyes, ears and hands, together with the knowledge of the process, and its control, had remained supreme for many years. The first robot welders started to appear in the 1970s to release welding operatives from the hard manual work involved in producing car bodies. Robot welding was relatively new but took off in the 1980s when the automotive industry used robots exclusively for spot welding of car bodies and panels. In

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