Annual Report 2006

In 2006 the Institute of Rail Welding completed its second full year as a Corporate Membership organisation and by the end of the year membership had risen to twenty one:

Air Liquide Welding Ltd
Amey Rail
Balfour Beatty Rail Technologies
BOC Ltd
Bridgen Enterprises Ltd *
Carillion
Corus Rail Sector
ESAB Group (UK) Ltd
First Engineering Ltd
GemWeld (UK) Ltd
Goldschmidt-Thermit GmbH
GPX Engineering Ltd
Grant Rail *
Jarvis Rail
Lincoln Electric (UK) Ltd *
London Underground Ltd
Metronet Rail BCV Ltd *
Network Rail
Railtech (UK) Ltd
Scotweld Employment Services
Serco Docklands *
Tube Lines Ltd *
Vital Rail

* = New member in 2006.

Each Corporate Member is entitled to nominate a representative to the Management Committee.

Income from subscriptions has enabled IoRW to continue to maintain all the current benefits of membership and to add significant new benefits.

The following benefits have been maintained:

• Members receive Welding Lines, the newsletter of the IoRW, four times a year.
  
  
• The website gives up-to-the-minute news and technical information.
  
  
• Twice-yearly technical seminars. As was the case in 2005, these have been well supported with members having benefited from the sharing of worldwide expertise.
  
  
• Participation in the development of uniform standards for rail welding technology, training and competence.
  
  
• Technical enquiry service for the rail welding community through a network of experts.
  
  
• Automatic access to the benefits of the Welding & Joining Society (WJS), which include Connect magazine, Welding and Cutting, JoinIT^®, an e-mail newsletter, the Weldasearch information service and free access to TWI's library.
  
  
• Participation in WJS national Branch and Technical Group activities.

IoRW members continued to benefit from Business Briefing events. These are designed to provide a forum for discussion with relevant experts on business matters such as Directives and legislation that affect the industry. One such successful event was organised for members of the Management Committee with presentations on noise at work, environmental noise and working time.

The second Annual General Meeting was held in June 2006 and the IoRW Management Committee met three times during the year. All these meetings were well attended, with a high percentage of Corporate Member representatives present.

Two Technical Seminars were held in 2006, the first in June at the Riverside Centre, Derby TWI on inspection of rail, the second in November at TWI on special rail grades and profiles - welding problems and solutions. Although Technical Seminars are no longer free to members, these events continued to attract a high number of participants, particularly the one in Derby which was attended by 120 people.

Towards the end of the year a survey of members’ needs was in progress with the aim of ensuring that the IoRW continued to be responsive and to add value to the membership network.

A further mailing to prospective member organisations was carried out towards the end of 2006 and it is intended that this will be followed up by personal contact by representatives of Corporate Members.

Because of the difficulties that they had encountered in the use of the Aluminothermic Welder Training Package, it was agreed to reimburse Bridgen and Vital Rail by waiving their outstanding annual subscription fee due in 2006.

Letters of resignation were received from Goldschmidt Thermit and Raitech but in both cases, under the terms of the original contract, insufficient notice was given. It was agreed that it was important to retain the support of the process suppliers and so discussions were initiated with both companies in hand with a view to their reversing their decision.

During the latter part of the year it was understood that GemWeld had been taken over and that GPX Engineering was in the process of a major reorganisation. Contact was made with these Corporate Members in order to ascertain the position concerning their current position and outstanding subscriptions. The situation remains unclear, although contact with these companies is being maintained to try to resolve the issue.

Through IoRW’s constitution as a membership organisation, commercial or any other kind of bias is avoided. This has brought about a spirit of consensus within the industry which has enabled technology and competence improvements, and a consequent reduction in rail breaks and weld reject rates. It is believed that, since its inception in 2002, IoRW has contributed greatly to the improvements that have been achieved in recent years.

Following the re-organisation of IoRW at the end of 2004, it is believed that the IoRW will continue on a firm financial and organisational footing to meet the challenges ahead.

Annual report 2005