When designing products that require welding, the designer should consider very early on in the project the implications of the choice of welding process and how the component will be made. Welding can largely be described as a special process and the choice of welding process for a particular job can be difficult without expert knowledge. There are many techniques for welding that have been developed over the years, some of which are still evolving and equipment suppliers will tend to naturally champion their own technology.
The design engineer can be faced with a bewildering number of choices for part fabrication and will often make decisions based upon their own previous experience. The choice of a fabrication process will depend upon a range of factors including:
- Development, capital and running costs
- Available in-house expertise and knowledge
- Material type
- Access and assembly sequence
- Dimensional tolerance
- Productivity
- Technical suitability of the finished part both in terms of as fabricated quality and fitness-for-purpose in service
- Inspection requirements
- Historical performance
- Health and Safety
- Standard, contractual and legislative requirements
TWI can provide a fully integrated service to help companies designing products to both choose the correct process at the start of a product lifetime and advise on component design that will facilitate smooth integration of the welding process with the proposed design concept.
TWI has state-of-the-art facilities for manufacturing and testing prototype products, allowing companies confidential and independent evaluation of processes before they invest in the technology themselves.
TWI also works for a wide range of industrial sectors worldwide and as such also has a good track record in successfully transferring technologies across different sectors to provide a competitive edge for its Member companies.
Our techniques are applied by skilled technologists and can often lead to innovative solutions.
TWI has a wide experience of projects where the correct process and design are not specified at the start of a product lifetime and also offers this support to its Member companies. The costs of rectification work and/or wasted capital spend can be considerable and easily justify investment costs spent with TWI at the start of a project. The types of projects undertaken by TWI can range from one day brainstorming activities to fully integrated product development, training and handover projects.
TWI also often provides consultancy and development advice at the point of manufacture worldwide.
For more information please email contactus@twi.co.uk.