Innovation Timeline

Heat affected zone cracking

The business was the first to identify the main factors controlling hydrogen induced heat affected zone cracking. It developed cracking tests and hydrogen measurement methods and later produced a comprehensive prediction procedure for avoiding cracking in structural steels, and determining the importance of sulphur content in cracking.

Industrial impacts

The prediction procedure formed the basis of a key British Standard for many years and now incorporates the European standard which superseded it. TWI's hydrogen measurement methods were adopted by the International Institute of Welding in the late eighties.

Spot and projection welding

The first code of practice for spot and projection welding was developed half way through the last century on the site near Cambridge where TWI is now established.

Industrial impact

These practices were immediately adopted by the International Institute of Welding and today form the basis of robotic spot welding of automotive parts.

Low stress brittle fracture

The first examination of low stress brittle fracture was demonstrated in the laboratory, shortly after the second world war, using the wide plate test, named after Alan Wells, a future director general of The Welding Institute.

Industrial impact

More than half a century later this 4000 tonne test rig is still the industry standard in both fracture initiation and crack arrest testing.

Crack Tip Opening Displacement test

General yielding fracture mechanics and the Crack Tip Opening Displacement test were developed during this period.

Industrial impact

Today the method is still an essential element of most fracture mechanics international standards and a fundamental tool for weld flaw assessment.

MIG and TIG welding processes

The Welding Institute, as TWI was then known, pioneered the development of the MIG and TIG welding processes.

Industrial impact

Today nearly every power source manufacturer in the world produces programmable sets for MIG welding. Some 5000 are currently sold per year.

CO2 laser cutting

The British Welding Research Association, as TWI was then known, invented oxygen assisted laser cutting, and by the early seventies had developed a fast axial flow CO2 laser.

Industrial impact

The first commercial fast axial CO2 lasers were built under licence from TWI in 1974. There are now over 12000 laser cutting systems worldwide.

Fatigue life of joints

The BWRA, as TWI was then known, was the first to demonstrate and explain why the fatigue life of joints is largely unrelated to steel strength.

Industrial impact

This revelation led to the successful application of fracture mechanics for the fatigue assessment of joints throughout the oil and gas community offshore and on.

Fatigue design for welded joints

The first comprehensive fatigue design rules for welded joints were developed at TWI's site, near Cambridge.

Industrial impact

Today these rules form the basis of most international fatigue standards, and have been adopted by civil, mechanical, structural and production engineers the world over.

Lamellar tearing

The Welding Institute was first to determine the factors governing the incidence of lamellar tearing, and to determine safe short transverse ductility levels for its avoidance.

Industrial impact

Today this costly problem - many millions of pounds were lost in the preceding three decades - has been virtually eradicated in the developed world by improving steel making practices.

Aluminium and copper ball bonding

TWI was the first to develop aluminium and copper ball bonding for fine pitch electronic chip interconnection using wires as small as 25 microns diameter.

Industrial impact

Today TWI holds a unique knowledge base in fine wire interconnect which is being applied internationally for the benefit of its Member companies.

Tough steel microstructures

The crucial role of non-metallic inclusions in the formation of tough steel microstructures was identified.

Industrial impact

Today high fracture toughness in weld metal depends on fine grained transformed microstructures which have nucleated on a fine distribution of inclusions, as well as the levels of aluminium, titanium and oxygen.

Defects assessment in welded structures

The organisation drew up the first quantitative guidance for assessing the significance of defects in welded structures.

Industrial impact

Today the UK leads the world in these forms of assessment. The flagship standard on the subject, BS7910, was adopted by the civil, marine, oil and gas and power generation communities. Much of the standard was originated at the British Welding Research Association, as TWI was then known.

Microstructural and compositional factors

TWI was at the forefront of work to identify and quantify the microstructural and compositional factors controlling weld area properties in duplex stainless steels.

Industrial impact

The work prompted steel makers around the world to modify their products to make them more weldable.

High power in-vacuum electron beam welding

During this period The Welding Institute was the first to achieve high power in-vacuum electron beam welding at 75kW and penetrate up to 300mm in steel in a single pass.

Industrial impact

Today TWI remains in the world's vanguard of organisations which performs high power in-vacuum electron beam welding.It routinely undertakes thick section welding tasks at powers upto 100kW for the power generation sector.

Long range ultrasonic inspection (LRU)

This period saw the invention and development of a long range ultrasonic inspection technique which was to change pipe inspection forever.

Industrial impact

Overnight, defect detection of remote pipeline was made possible in difficult locations, even where the pipe was lagged or buried.

Weld area molecular

TWI was the first to quantify the weld area molecular and morphology changes in polyethylene and polypropylene.

Industrial impact

At the time the technique was considered groundbreaking.

Linear friction welding

TWI was first to develop linear friction welding of metals.

Industrial impact

Today the process is adopted by aero engine producers the world over. It has revolutionised the manufacture of compressor rotors in jet engines and is being developed for a variety of lower cost applications.

Friction Stir Welding (FSW)

TWI invented friction stir welding. It was initially used to join aluminium but is now capable of joining a wide range of materials.

Industrial impact

Nearly 200 organisations have been licensed to use the solid-phase, environmentally friendly process. It has even been used in space vehicles. Many more materials have now been joined using the process including magnesium, copper, zinc, lead and some plastics.

High power reduced pressure electron beam welding

TWI was the first to develop a high power reduced pressure electron beam welding process.

Industrial impact

Today it leads the world both in chamber and local vacuum Reduced Pressure Electron Beam Welding and holds the process patent. It is now adopted widely by the power generation, oil and gas and heavy engineering structural communities.

Laser Scabbling (2009)

A non-contact defocused laser beam process for ablative removal of concrete surfaces.

Industrial impact

A major potential user is the nuclear power industry where concrete surfaces can become contaminated to a depth of a few millimetres.

Laser DMD

TWI's laser direct metal deposition systems use lasers supplying beams which can be focused to a spot from 0.2mm to 2.5mm plus in diameter. This makes the process suitable for depositing both fine detail and bulk material alike.

Industrial impact

The process provides rapid, accurate placement of material at low heat input allowing the use of crack-sensitive alloys such as nickel based alloys of particular interest to gas turbine manufacturers and repairers.

Surfi-Sculpt

This is a surface modification technique which uses electron and laser beams, to re-shape materials precisely and 'grow' protrusions out of the surface of a material.

Industrial impact

Surfi-Sculpt works on a wide variety of materials, not just metals. Any material that forms a stable liquid phase under the action of the beam may be processed, and this includes some materials that are not electrically conductive in the normal sense.

High Pressure Hydrogen Testing Facility

The equipment is designed for testing materials in high pressure hydrogen environments. A range of tests can be carried out including fatigue, tensile testing and fracture toughness testing. The new facility is capable of operating at 1000bar, within a temperature range of +85 to -150°C.

Industrial impact

Development of a world-leading sour service cracking and corrosion fatigue test facility producing fatigue design curves for welded steel catenary risers in sour service, representing a significant step forward for the oil and gas industry.

Resonance fatigue testing

TWI has a total of seven resonance testing machines for full-scale fatigue testing of pipe joints accommodating diameters in the range 4 to 36" (100 to 914mm). New control systems and software developed in-house, allow the required loading spectrum to be reproduced reliably at the resonant frequency of the full-scale pipe sample.

Industrial impact

This unique system is now used for extreme high-cycle variable amplitude tests, up to 200 million cycles, on 16" (406mm) diameter pipe in a Group Sponsored Project. Other components such as pipe to forging joints, threaded pipe connectors or solid components such as drive shafts can also be handled.