Thu, 09 July, 2026
TWI / The Welding Institute welcomed over 500 attendees to our headquarters near Cambridge, UK on 7 July 2026 for the Welding, Joining and Manufacturing Conference and Exhibition (WeldJoinExpo) 2026.
Attendance
This flagship event for welding, joining and allied technologies in the UK attracted over 570 attendees on the day, as well as numerous exhibitors and presenters from both TWI Industrial Member and non-Industrial Member companies, including many of the best-known names in industry, such as Rolls-Royce, Caterpillar, Make UK and Make UK Defence, the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Council, the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) and JCB, who brought along around 25 apprentices to soak up the atmosphere and take part in a virtual welding competition.
We were also honoured to be able to invite Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne and her delegation to TWI Cambridge in her capacity as an Honorary Fellow of The Welding Institute. The Princess Royal, who opened three new buildings at our headquarters in 2015, was given a tour of the facilities and showed great interest in and knowledge of materials joining technologies and STEM professions.
Exhibition
Networking and knowledge-sharing were important factors for the day, and one of the most popular parts of WeldJoinExpo26 was the exhibition area that was held in our iconic ‘Street’ and featured 33 companies and organisations, including ASAMS Ltd, the Aerospace Technology Institute, Cambridge Vacuum Engineering, Crimson Industrial Vision, Cyberweld, Daido Steel, EAL, Element Six, EngEPA, Enginuity, Fronius, GYS UK, Hornet Laser Cladding, Hypertherm, Instron, IOM3, Jade Engineering, JCB, Kuka Systems UK Ltd, Lavender International, Make UK, Make UK Defence, Measurement Solutions, the Nuclear Industry Association, NIS Limited, Oxford Sensors Ltd, Seabery, Stirlight, TPS WeldTech Ltd, Triton Electronics Ltd, the Validation Centre, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and VBC Group.
Attendees were also able to speak with representatives from TWI, The Welding Institute, and TWI Certification, about Professional and Industrial Membership, our information and knowledge services, and more. There was also an exhibition of welding art and a display of welding-related stamps from around the World.
Workshops and Presentations
WeldJoinExpo26 featured a suite of workshops that included both open drop-in sessions and pre-booked sessions for TWI Industrial Members.
Our industry-specific workshops covered aerospace, defence, nuclear, oil and gas, and space, while there were also dedicated workshops for TWI Certification, Professional Membership, TWI Software, and non-destructive testing. These workshops provided information and presentations from a range of industry experts from both within and outside of TWI / The Welding Institute.
In addition, we hosted ‘Future Technologies’ rooms where attendees were invited to attend a range of presentations about out how high-quality research is driving transformation and delivering real benefits for society and the economy, including a deep dive into some of TWI’s greatest innovations.
In total we hosted 154 different presenters including experts from TWI / The Welding Institute along with representatives from Amentum, Babcock International, the Department of Business and Trade, EDF, Enginuity, the European Space Agency, Framatome, Fronius, Innovate UK, ITER, KUKA Systems Ltd, Lloyd’s Register, Make UK and Make UK Defence, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Petrobras, Rolls-Royce SMR, TPAC, UK Space Agency, UK Atomic Energy Authority, Warren Services, Weld Australia, and more.
Engineering Hall
We opened up our main engineering hall for WeldJoinExpo26, giving attendees the opportunity to visit at their leisure during the day and stop at special stands and displays dedicated to a range of industrial processes and capabilities, including dedicated displays from Instrom Mechanical Testing, Novarc, and Fronius.
The stations were all manned by experts in their specific fields, offering insights into areas including fracture testing, laser welding, electron beam welding, high-speed testing, friction processes, plastics welding and joining, fatigue performance and testing, surface engineering and advanced coatings, thermal processing technologies, arc processes, additive manufacturing processes, and a range of NDT solutions such as phased array ultrasonics, eddy current array testing, long range ultrasonics, and NDT Cobots.
The TWI / JCB Skills Zone
With presentations by experts drawn from industry and academia, as well as our own TWI / The Welding Institute staff, the day was designed to offer a broad range of activities to suit everyone; from those with decades of experience to those who are just embarking on their careers.
To help address the needs of those who are starting out with their careers, we partnered with JCB to create the WeldJoinExpo ‘Skills Zone,’ featuring a range of activities, from dedicated presentations to information stands covering areas including training.
The JCB apprentices in attendance also had the chance to compete in a special artificial reality (AR) welding competition held in conjunction with Seabery, with prizes given for the best AR welds produced…
With so much going on across the day, we would also like to thank Guerilla Kitchen, Nomadough, Steak and Honour, and Truckhiato, who all helped provide food and drink for attendees on the day.
We will provide a more in-depth look at the WeldJoinExpo26 ‘Skills Zone’ here soon - including details and outcomes from the JCB apprentice AR welding competition – but in the meantime, you can see a video from the day (below) produced courtesy of Seabery…