Mon, 17 February, 2025
Standards committees in both the UK and overseas are looking for new members to help with the development of standards in plastics welding.
As an organisation, TWI has been instrumental in the development of British, European and international standards for plastic welding over the last 30 years.
These include standards such as:
- ISO 5623 (Plastics – Joining of thermoplastic moulded components – Specification for quality levels for imperfections)
- ISO 23512 (Plastics – Joining of thermoplastic moulded components – Specification of variables for thermal joining processes)
- EN 12814 Parts 1-8 (Testing of welded joints of thermoplastics semi-finished products)
- EN 13100 Part 1-4 (Non-destructive testing of welded joints in thermoplastics semi-finished products)
- EN 13067 (Plastics welding personnel – Qualification of welders – Thermoplastics welded assemblies)
- CEN/TR 16862 (Plastics welding supervisor – Tasks, responsibilities, knowledge, skills and competence)
However, there are still a large number of standards that need to be created in areas including pressure and leak testing, qualification of welding procedures, terminology and representation on drawings.
Why you should join
Membership and involvement and contributing to future standards can be good for your own personal career, as well as being interesting, educational and providing a forum for you to meet other experts in the field.
However, there are also company-wide benefits that could be advantageous to your organisation too. You can ensure that your voice is heard and that the standards that impact your industry and organisation are aligned with your business requirements.
Of course, membership also offers you an early oversight and information about incoming standards.
Currently, there are opportunities for those based in the UK and abroad to get involved in standards development for plastics welding, as follows:
In the UK
In the UK, the BSI WEE/3 committee (Welding and Thermal Joining of Plastics) is looking for new members to help develop and publish new standards for the polymer welding industry using the widest range of talent, knowledge and experience available. Therefore, if you are based in the UK and have knowledge and/or experience in the field of polymer welding, and in particular quality testing and assessment, please consider joining WEE/3 as a Committee Member. To apply, please fill in the application form located here. In addition, you can also gain understanding of what committee membership entails by reading the role description here or by contacting Mike.Troughton@twi.co.uk.
Outside the UK
Outside the UK, TWI holds the convenorship of the ISO Working Group ISO/TC61/SC11/WG14 (Plastic Joining), which is also looking for new members. If you would like to get involved in this Working Group please see here and if you would like more information about what membership of this ISO Working Group entails, please contact Mike.Troughton@twi.co.uk.