Annual Report 2010
   
   
   

At 31 December 2010 the membership was as follows:

Corporate Members

Babcock Rail
Balfour Beatty Rail Technologies
BOC Ltd
Carillion Rail
ESAB Group (UK) Ltd
Infrastructure Training Services
Lincoln Electric (UK) Ltd
Lloyd Sersa (Eire)
London Underground Ltd
Metronet Rail BCV Ltd
Network Rail
Progress Rail Corporation (USA)
Saint-Gobain Abrasives
Sky Blue
Tube Lines Ltd
Tata Steel
TWI Ltd
Volker Rail
Individual Members
P J Fenlon
D N Shackleton
W Faville

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.

The following benefits have been maintained:

  • Members receive Welding Lines, the newsletter of the IoRW, three to four times a year.
  • Business briefings provide Management Committee members with a forum for discussion of specific business matters with relevant experts.
  • The website gives up-to-the-minute news and technical information.
  • Twice-yearly technical seminars are open to all (but at a large discount to members) and provide technology exchange opportunities with experts from the UK and overseas.
  • Participation in the development of uniform, harmonised 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, JoinITŪ, an e-mail newsletter, the Weldasearch information service and free access to TWI's library.
  • Participation in WJS regional Branch and national Technical Group activities.

A new certificate of membership was created and 2010 and issued to all members.

Summary of activities in 2010

Membership

Infrastructure Training Services joined IoRW as a new member.

Events

Technical Seminars

Two Technical Seminars were held in 2010, the first was on 28 April, kindly hosted by BOC Wolverhampton, on Current Developments in Rail Welding and Repair; and the second was on 1 December at TWI Cambridge on Developments in Rail Inspection. These events continued to attract a high number of participants, and around 50 people attended each one. The event at BOC included a number of practical demonstrations in BOC's workshops.

Business Briefings

The IoRW Management Committee 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. The business briefings held in 2010 were:

  • Presentation from Ian Wilcox, Semta, on the new National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE).
  • Presentation on training activities and tour of the facilities at the new Network Rail centre in Walsall.

Other meetings

The Fifth Annual General Meeting was held on 30 June 2010 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.

Publications

Newsletter

Three issues of Welding Lines were published in 2010 which included a wide range of relevant technical articles, company profiles and interviews with Corporate Members.

Website

Information on the IoRW website (www.iorw.org) continued to be regularly updated.

Training and competence

Further progress was made in the development the Guideline for a Diploma in Rail Welding Engineering. Infrastructure Training Services underwent a successful audit and were approved under the IoRW certification scheme for training organisations. Carillion's approval under the scheme was renewed.

RAILSAFE 2

The RAILSAFE Phase 2 project proposal on arc welding of rails was successfully completed in September 2010. Six partners from five countries were involved: TWI Ltd, UK; Ir. J.B. van den Brug Raadgevend Ingenieur, The Netherlands; European Welding Federation, Portugal; ISQ, Portugal; Swedish Welding Commission, Sweden; National R&D Institute for Material Testing, Romania.

Progress was reported regularly at IoRW Management Committee meetings, at Technical Seminars and in Welding Lines. The main activity in 2010 was the running of pilot courses in three countries to test the curriculum guideline that had been developed. A successful pilot course was held in the UK at Network Rail's centre in Larbert Scotland and this resulted in very positive feedback from the students. More information on the project can be found at www.ewf.be/Railsafe2.

Overview

Through IoRW's constitution as a membership organisation, commercial or any other kind of bias is avoided. This has continued to bring about a spirit of consensus within the industry which has enabled technology and competence improvements. This will be carried forward into the future through the continued strong support of the membership.

Annual report 2009
   

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