Fri, 03 October, 2025
We held our annual Core Research Programme (CRP) Symposium on 25 September, 2025, where we welcomed over 100 Industrial Members to our headquarters near Cambridge, UK.
The exclusive Members-only event provided a showcase of projects from our world-leading industrial research programme, along with opportunities to connect with TWI technical experts and fellow Industrial Members through interactive panel and networking sessions.
CRP projects are selected to address significant challenges related to technology areas highlighted as of crucial interest to the future operations of our Members. These projects, which have a duration of 1-3 years, are funded using a proportion of TWI Industrial Members' annual subscription, with the aim being to provide maximised benefits, cost effectiveness and tangible operating impact to Members.
The event began with refreshments for attendees before an opening welcome from TWI CEO, Caroline Gumble (dr).
This was followed by the first presentation of the day, delivered by our Chief Technology and Quality Assurance Officer, Dr Paul Woollin and our Technology Roadmap and Investments Manager, Dr Sam Thomas.
The topic of the presentation was the ‘TWI Technology Roadmap,’ a strategic representation of where we will prioritise investments into technology capabilities to meet our Member needs over the next 10 years.
The TWI Technology Roadmap was developed in response to cross-sector demand by industry for safe and sustainable systems manufactured through welding, joining and coating, with an accelerated time to commercial availability to provide competitive advantage, enable net zero, and create societal benefit.
We were pleased to welcome William Wistace from Lloyd’s Register to introduce the CRP Symposium’s first theme of the day, ‘Inspection, Monitoring and End of Life.’
TWI’s Technology Fellow for Advanced Ultrasonic Inspection, Dr Channa Nageswaran began the series of presentations with an insight into, ‘Developing Acceptance Criteria towards In-process Assessment of Electron Beam Welds.’
Our Non-Destructive Testing Research and Technology Section’s Condition Monitoring Specialist, Dr Stephen Grigg delivered the final presentation for the opening theme, speaking on, ‘Artificial Intelligence for NDT Scanning of Unknown Geometries using Collaborative Robots.’
This was followed by the first panel discussion of the day...
The panel discussion brought together experts from within and outside of TWI, including a number of TWI Technology Fellows.
This was followed by a series of elevator pitches to the attending TWI Industrial Members by our CRP Project Engineers and Technology Fellows, before everyone took time for a refreshment break and some networking opportunities.
The day’s second theme, ‘Validating Reliability of Novel Manufacturing Techniques,’ opened with a presentation from TWI Senior Project Engineer (Friction Welding Processes Section), Dr Pedro Santos, on the subject of the ‘Development of Friction Stir Welding for Hydrogen Fuel Storage Tanks.’
The theme continued with a presentation by TWI Laser Additive Manufacturing Project Engineer, Gustavo Prass, who delivered, ‘A Review of Directed Energy Deposition CAM Tools to Help Industrial Decision Making.’
This was followed by a second panel discussion and more elevator pitches from our CRP Project Engineers and Technology Fellows…
Another round of ‘speed networking’ among TWI experts and attendees then led to a break for lunch, where there was also time to visit exhibition stands that had been set up to provide more information.
This included members of the TWI Certification Ltd team, who took the opportunity to celebrate their (slightly belated) 30th anniversary!
In addition, there was time to see posters created by PhD students working with TWI through The National Structural Integrity Research Centre (NSIRC). With the students on hand to speak about each poster, this also provided a good opportunity to get some in-depth information about their research projects.
Following lunch, the third and final theme of the day – ‘Structural Integrity for Safety and Sustainability’ - was introduced by keynote speaker and Senior Corrosion and Materials Engineer at B.P., Dr Roberto Morana.
This theme included five presentations, beginning with an insight into ‘Internal Bore Coatings for Applications in Corrosion and Hydrogen Environments’ from our Laser Additive Manufacturing Section Laboratories Manager and Project Engineer, Tomaso Maccio.
TWI Materials Engineer for the Metallurgy, Corrosion and Surfacing Section, Dr Ahamad Ameen was next to speak, when he delivered information related to ‘Hydrogen Embrittlement Reduced by Oxygen and Moisture.’
Next, Dr Swaroop Narayanan, Composites Engineer within the TWI Polymer and Composites Services Section, provided the third presentation within the theme with a focus on the ‘Development of Leak-before-Break Hydrogen Storage Composite Pressure Vessels.’
A refreshment break followed before TWI’s Team Manager for the Metallurgy, Corrosion and Surfacing Section, Dr Michael Dodge delivered his presentation into ‘Environmental Fracture Mechanics Testing of Dissimilar Metal Welds.’
The final presentation of the day went to TWI Senior Project Engineer (Metallurgy, Corrosion and Surfacing Section), Dr Dorothy Winful, who provided an insight into ‘Establishing Assessment Methods for Determining Safe Service Limits of High-Temperature Materials in Extreme Environment.’
Following a final panel discussion attendees were invited to a special awards ceremony for the best NSIRC PhD student poster, ‘The Richard Weck Award 2024.’
The Award is made annually for the most worthy Industrial Members' Report from the Core Research Programme published in the preceding year and is named after Richard Weck, a former Director General of the British Welding Research Association and The Welding Institute.
This year’s award was given for a report called, ‘Investigation of Integrated Additive Manufacturing from Feedstock to Part Quality: Development of WAAM Process to Achieve Consistent Bead Geometry with Conventional Feedstock Composition.’ Co-authored by Cui Er Seow, Kai Yang, Ruth Donnelly and Philippa Moore, the award was presented to Kai on behalf of the project team before the day was rounded out with thanks and a closing speech from Dr Paul Woollin, and attendees were given an opportunity for a showcase and tour of the TWI Cambridge laboratories.
We would like to thank everyone who attended on the day as well as all of those who participated to make this year’s CRP Symposium another fantastic success.
You can find out more about the TWI Core Research Programme, here:
https://www.twi-global.com/what-we-do/research-and-technology/research-programmes/core-research-programme