Joining nations 1947-1990

PREFACE

For the student of welding technology in the second half of the 2oth century, the archives of the working units of the IIW constitute a rich mine of material relating to the development of the welding processes, to the attempts to solve the problems associated with their application in industry and to the needs of welding personnel in respect of education and training, health and safety, and sources of information. In the following account of the IIW's background, foundation and development, that mine has not been e>..'Ploited. Since the chief purpose of the IIW has in practice been to provide a framework for co-operative studies of different aspects of welding technology and the means for disseminating the results of such studies, it must appear that any work devoted to the IIW which does not deal with the activities of its working units is Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark. That charge is justified but it would be impossible to produce a coherent book, particularly a short one, covering, over a period of 40 years, the progress of studies so diverse in nature and topic as those undertaken by the working units of the IIW. On the other hand, the circumstances contributing to the foundation of the IIW and its evolution as a living organism responding to the political, economic and technical changes in its environment are matters which may all be of general interest and are certainly relevant to the development of the Institute's technical activities. This is nowhere more evident than in the choice of themes for the public sessions, colloquia and international conferences which have been organised at Annual Assemblies and which have notably contributed to the dissemination of information on what were per– ceived to be current problems. Since these events are not in the mainstream of IIW activities, they are only touched upon in the text of this study, but their titles are listed in Appendix III. The tangible results of the activities of the working units are to be

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