TWI (TWI Ltd, UK)

www.twi.co.uk

RTD Profile
TWI Ltd is one of Europe's largest independent research and technology organisations. Based at Abington near Cambridge since 1946, TWI provides industry with technical support in laser welding, NDT and associated technologies. TWI has over 430 skilled staff and a turnover of 40 million Euros. TWI has participated in approximately 35 European projects including several Framework V, CSG and CRAFT projects.

Participation in technical tasks
Although TWI will be involved in all of the work packages to some extent, at the request of the SMEs TWI will have major input into work packages; WP-B - In-process monitoring, WP-C - NDT techniques, WP-F - Integration and WP-G - Project management.

Reasons for selection by the SMEs
The above work packages will be carried out by TWI's world leading centre of excellence in laser welding and NDT. TWI has over 50 qualified engineers with appropriate academic, research and industrial qualifications in both of these technical areas. TWI has the following research equipment and facilities making it the ideal research institute to execute this research project:

• 9 processing cells containing state of the art, high power, laser welding and monitoring equipment.
• 6 laboratories dedicated to NDT research.
• Latest NDT equipment and systems including phased array systems, eddy current systems, magnetic flux leakage systems and real time X-ray equipment amongst others. The total investment in NDT research equipment and facilities is greater than 5 million Euros.

TWI has been the main research co-ordinator on over sixteen CRAFT projects. TWI was also selected for the following reasons:

1. It's proven technical excellence in the development of laser and NDT techniques for many industrial partners. Several of TWI's past inventions are being used regularly within the industry.
2. TWI's business strategy is based on industrial collaborative projects either involving its industrial company membership, or European projects.
3. TWI's involvement in the various CRAFT projects and the close contact with the automotive industry within Europe have made TWI the first choice for the SMEs in this project.

TWI personnel involved in the project will be Dr Gongqi Shi, Principal Project Leader in the laser and sheet processes group, John Rudlin, Principal Consultant in NDT and a number of other technical staff with extensive experience of laser processing and NDT techniques used in quality control and in-service inspection. Dr Shi has more than eight years of experience in laser welding and examination of inclusions and defects in steels using NDT techniques. Dr Rudlin has over 25 years experience in NDT including research and development of ultrasonic and electromagnetic methods. Both have published a number of papers in their respective technical and, between them, they have managed several EC projects in the last five years.