IIW White Paper

2.2 Today’s welding industry and its structures The cost of welding, as an industrial process, plays a crucial role in manufacturing decisions. Many different variables affect the total cost, including equipment cost, labour cost, material cost, and energy cost. In recent years, in order to minimise labour costs in high production manufacturing, industrial welding has become increasingly more automated, most notably with the use of robots in resistance spot welding ( especially in the automotive industry) and in arc welding. In robotic welding, mechanised devices both hold the material and perform the weld, and at first, spot welding was its most common application. Robotic arc welding, however, has been increasing in popularity as technology has advanced. Other key areas of research and development include the welding of dissimilar materials (such as steel and aluminium, for example) and new welding processes, such as friction stir, magnetic pulse, conductive heat seam, and laser-hybrid welding. Specialised processes such as laser beam welding are now continually finding new practical applications in industry sectors such as aerospace and automotive. The modelling of weld properties such as microstructure and residual stresses, and the application of rapid advances in IT and computer science to process development and automation provide a rapidly expanding frontier for the modern welding industry. Throughout the life of IIW, the scope of its technical programme has been continually expanded to include new technologies. Such have included more recently, the joining of plastics and composites, the capabilities of computers in design, process control, inspection and information handling, welding in a variety of environments and under remote control, new concerns for the health and safety of those working in industry and the environment and the education, training, qualification and certification of personnel and companies. 2.3.1 Early welding societies The welding fraternity has enjoyed a long history of cooperation through the formation and networking of numerous organisations, both at national and global levels. The German Welding Society, Deutscher Verband für Schweißen (DVS), formed in 1897 from a number of smaller organisations, was one of the earliest technical-scientific non-profit-making societies. It now offers a network of 86 district branches (BVs), 14 state branches (LVs) and approximately 400 DVS® educational facilities. The first German welding training and testing establishment, Schweißtechnische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt (SLV) was formed in Berlin-Brandeberg in 1927, later to join the 2003 amalgamation of SLVs to form a national network under the banner of Gesellschaft für Schweißtechnik International (GSI). The development of welding took place very rapidly from the time of World War I and consequently in many countries there was a feeling among those in the welding fraternity that some kind of forum was required to represent the views and aspirations of those working in the industry. One of the first countries to respond was the United States, and the American Welding Society (AWS) was formed on March 28, 1919. It was incorporated, specifically, as a multifaceted organisation with a goal to advance the science, technology and application of welding and related joining disciplines. The AWS had its origins in the Welding Committee of the Emerging Fleet Corporation, set up in 1917 by WoodrowWilson and chaired by a Harvard professor, Comfort A. Adams. The AWS published its first technical publication in 1919 and this provided the groundwork for the first issue of a journal by AWS which appeared in 1922. The society then expanded rapidly and in that year had established chapters in eight American cities. 2.3 Organisations, institutes, communication and networks

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Through Optimum Use and Innovation of Welding and Joining Technologies

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