TWI North America - Consulting Services

Consulting Services

TWI consulting services include technical advice, research and investigation.

As one of the leading research and technology organisations in the world, member companies of TWI can expect top-quality, innovative work, delivered by scientists and engineers who are internationally recognised in their fields.

Welding Engineering

Welding engineering is a specialist area of engineering which focuses on the appropriate use of procedures and practises in the welded fabrication of components and structures to ensure their integrity, performance and safety in service. Welding engineering embraces many disciplines including design, materials selection, process technology, quality control and repair and maintenance.

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Testing and Characterisation

TWI has extensive engineering facilities comprising, amongst others, machines for impact, fracture toughness, fatigue, fatigue precracking and creep testing as well as large scale rigs and full-scale pipe testing facilities.

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Corrosion Management

TWI's services in corrosion assessment, mitigation and corrosion management encompass a wide range of in-house technical disciplines combined to provide a tailored fit to match our client's requirements. From expert support and review, through laboratory studies, failure investigations and corrosion assessment to corrosion management reviews and risk-based management implementation.

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Structural Integrity

Structural integrity, the reliability and safe design of all engineered structures is vitally important to prevent catastrophic failure and ensure continuous profitable operation. Our portfolio of services includes failure investigation, root cause analysis, litigation, consultancy, specialised software products, mechanical and corrosion testing and the development of integrity management solutions

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Advanced NDE

TWI has been at the forefront of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of fabricated structures for more than 40 years. Our aim is to provide cost savings and reliability assurance to customers through the development of innovative inspection solution and by interfacing with related technologies such as engineering critical assessment, risk-based inspection strategies, reliability analysis and repair procedure development.

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Guided wave technology

Low frequency ultrasonic waves are used to detect defects and imperfections some distance away from the ultrasonic source in a range of components. A typical application of Long Range Ultrasonic Testing (LRUT) is the detection of corrosion and metal loss in pipes and pipelines. A set of piezoelectric transducers sends the ultrasonic waves in both directions along the length of the pipe.

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Contact us for more information about the consulting services we offer.

TWI Staff

Amir Bahrami

Amir has an engineering background with a PhD in Materials and Metallurgy from University of Cambridge. Amir is involved in a variety of research and consultancy projects related to performance and integrity of materials offshore particularly in deep-water developments. His work includes hydrogen induced stress cracking of subsea components under cathodic protection, fatigue performance of riser girth welds under environmental degradation as well as testing and qualification of materials and complex structure such as flexible pipes. He also overviews TWI's technical developments related to upstream activities including all of TWI’s JIPs.

Colum Holtam

Colum is a Principal Project Leader within the Fatigue Integrity Management section of the Structural Integrity Technology Group. His main activities are related to consultancy or research and development, with the majority of his clients being from within the oil and gas sector. Colum currently manages several R&D projects related to fatigue design and flaw assessment, with particular emphasis on the corrosion fatigue behaviour of pipeline steels exposed to sour environments. He is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the IMechE and ASME.

Henryk Pisarski

Dr Henryk Pisarski is a Technology Fellow at TWI. He is also Technology Manager (Fracture) and is attached to the Fracture Integrity Management section of the Structural Integrity Technology Group at TWI, Cambridge, UK. He has been with TWI since 1973, but was seconded to EWI, Columbus, Ohio in the late 1980s. He is concerned with the development and application of fracture mechanics testing and flaw assessment procedures (often called Engineering Critical Assessments) to welds to ensure their integrity in structural components with respect to fracture avoidance. In recent years he has been involved in developing flaw acceptance criteria for pipeline girth welds subjected to high strain. He has contributed to codes and standards (such as BS7448, BS7910) and published over 70 papers on fracture toughness testing and integrity assessment of welds for a wide range of engineering structures such as: offshore structures, ships, pipelines, pressure vessels. In addition he has carried out investigations into the cause of failure in pipelines, pipework, ships, offshore structures and LNG plant, and also carried out expert witness work in relation to a pressure vessel failure.

Mohamad Cheaitani

Mohamad is Consultant in TWI's Fracture Integrity Management Section, part of TWI's Structural Integrity Technology Group. He joined TWI in 1997 where he worked primarily on consultancy/R&D projects in the areas of fracture and fatigue assessment of welded structures, with particular emphasis on the oil and gas sector. His activities include failure investigations and the determination of flaw acceptance criteria for pipeline girth welds. He takes a significant role in the development of improved and new flaw assessment procedures within the framework of BS 7910 and the development of TWI's Crackwise Software.

Isabel Hadley

After a degree from Cambridge University and a PhD from Sheffield University, Isabel worked as a materials/structural integrity engineer in a number of industries, including steel research, offshore engineering and nuclear power. In 1992 she joined TWI where she is currently Section Manager, Fracture Integrity Management (part of the Structural Integrity Technology Group). Her responsibilities include the management of projects concerning the integrity of welded structures, in particular pressure vessels and pipelines

Peter Tubby

Peter Tubby is Section Manager of the Fatigue Integrity Management Section in the Structural Integrity Technology Group. He graduated in Metallurgy from the University of Manchester. Since joining TWI in 1979, he has been involved in many aspects of the fatigue design, analysis and testing of welded structures. His research interests include the behaviour of joints under variable amplitude loading, with particular reference to the recording and analysis of service loads, the performance of joints under corrosion fatigue conditions and the repair of fatigue damage by welding.

Graham Slater

Graham Slater gained a degree in Engineering from Cambridge University in 1979 and joined the Fatigue Section of TWI as a Research Engineer. In 1981 he moved to the Design Advisory Services Section and became involved in major research projects including welded repair of steel bridges, fracture toughness of offshore pipeline girth welds, fatigue behaviour of internally stiffened tubular joints and effect of thickness on fatigue performance of tubular joints. Graham is currently a Principal Consultant in the Structural Integrity Technology Group. His consultancy work includes: design and experimental stress analysis of welded structures, fatigue and fracture resistance, failure investigation and the application of codes and standards.

Eur Ing Mike Gittos BSc MSc MIM Sen MWeld I C Eng

Mike is a Consultant in the TWI Metallurgy, Corrosion & Surfacing Technology Group. He joined the then Metallurgy Laboratory at TWI in 1974, after gaining first and masters degrees at Manchester University.

Currently, he is extensively involved with consultancy work. Mike manages many of TWI's higher profile failure investigations including those assessing significant damage to high value assets. He has experience of a broad range of failure mechanisms embracing environmental effects, as well as mechanical damage processes relevant to a wide range of industries. He has also led major projects on contamination of titanium welds, failures in aluminium cold boxes in LNG plants, disbonding of internally clad vessels, preferential corrosion of offshore pipework systems, and performance of dissimilar joints in subsea systems.

In 1993 he was awarded the A F Davis silver medal by the American Welding Society and in 1998 received the Bengough Award from The Institute of Materials.

Richard Pargeter

Richard joined TWI's Materials Department in 1976 after gaining a BA from the University of Cambridge in Metallurgy and Materials Science. Since then his work has covered virtually all aspects of the welding metallurgy of transformable steels. He has worked on many large failure investigations and has carried out studies into the various forms of weld metal and HAZ cracking. He is currently a Technology Fellow, specialising in ferritic steels and sour service within the metallurgy, corrosion, and surfacing technology group.

Ivan Pinson

Ivan joined TWI in 1997 and prior to joining the NDT Group was the Manager of Training and Examinations with overall responsibility for the technical content of courses and certification covering NDT, Welding Inspection, Practical Welding and Welding Engineering. Currently he is acting Section Manager for NDT.

Peter Mudge

Peter Mudge joined the newly formed Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) research section at TWI in 1976, after graduating in Metallurgy and Materials Science at Nottingham University with First Class Honours. He was head of the TWI NDT department from 1985 to 1994, when the department merged to form the Structural Integrity group, and was NDT Technology Manager from 1994 until setting up Plant Integrity Ltd in 1997. As NDT Technology Manager, he had a co-ordinating role for the inspection and NDT activities at TWI, including management of the Inspection Development section of the Structural Integrity Department.

He is currently a Technology Fellow at TWI, working within the Long Range Ultrasonics Section which is part of the NDT Technology Group. He is also Technical Director of the TWI subsidiary Plant Integrity Ltd.

John Rudlin

John joined TWI in 1999 with a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Nottingham University and is a Fellow of the British Institute of NDT and is a member of the Institute Technical Committee. As a Principal Consultant in NDT in TWI's NDT Division, John is involved in NDT in project management, research and consultancy. He specialises in Inspection Reliability, Ultrasonic, Electromagnetic and Thermographic Inspection. His previous experience in the nuclear industry, an NDT instrument manufacturer and managing inspection reliability projects for the offshore industry enables him to carry out research and consultancy in NDT in most industry sectors

Dave Godfrey

Dave joined TWI in 2004 as a Welding Engineer in the Manufacturing Support Group. Since then, he has managed projects for Member companies in the nuclear, oil & gas, and general engineering sectors.

30 years experience in welding and fabrication, starting as an apprentice welder in the construction industry. Welding Engineer at companies manufacturing pressure vessels for oil, gas and nuclear use. Welding Engineer Manager at a major welding consumable and equipment manufacturer, providing technical support to most industrial sectors.

Simon Smith

Simon has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in modelling of creep crack growth. He joined TWI as part of the numerical modelling team. He has developed practical engineering methods for the implementation of the numerical modelling in Engineering Critical Assessments (ECAs). This includes the fatigue and fracture assessments of welded joints and the prediction of residual stresses for ECA. Simon has also developed methods for the analysis of Friction Stir Welding (FSW) with particular emphasis on the use of commercially available software and widely available materials data. The FSW models are based upon Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) which Simon is also using to analyse sustainable energy methods and supersonic flow. Simon is a Consultant in the Structural Integrity Technology Group and TWI Technology Manager for Numerical Modelling.

Charles Schneider

Charles has an MA in Mathematics from Oxford University, and spent 11 years in the power generation industry, working mainly on theoretical models for ultrasonic inspection. He is a Fellow of the British Institute of NDT, which presented him with the 1992 Nemet Award for 'outstandingly effective use of NDT' in automating the design of turbine inspections.

Charles joined TWI in 1997. As a Principal Consultant in the NDT Section, he gets involved in inspection qualification, and he has developed a statistical model of defect detectability by radiography. He also uses statistical methods to analyse fatigue test data and to extrapolate data from sample inspections.

Paul Woollin

Dr Paul Woollin joined TWI in 1992. He is currently Research Director and Product Manager for Group Sponsored Projects.

His work has included the study of supermartensitic, duplex, superduplex, and superaustenitic stainless steels with emphasis on identifying causes of failure and undertaking research to identify solutions. Particular areas of expertise include corrosion and cracking performance of welded joints in aggressive service and hydrogen embrittlement under cathodic protection.

Dave Harvey

EurIng Dave Harvey, MEng, CEng, FWeldI

Technology Manager - Surface Engineering

TWI’s Dave Harvey provides consultancy in the field of thermal spray and cold spray coating technology. He has a Master’s degree in chemical engineering, is a Fellow of The Welding Institute and has worked in the field of thermal spraying for 20 years. Specialist advice is available on the use of TSA for the mitigation of corrosion including CUI, high temperature service and weld-related applications. Technical support is also available relating to the interpretation and working practice in accordance with international codes and standards, meeting QA/QC requirements and compliance with health, safety and environmental regulations.

For further information, please contact dave.harvey@twi.co.uk

Paul Hilton

Technology Manager - Lasers

Ted Hutchens

Technology Consultant

Mike Troughton

Technology Manager - Plastics

Colin Ribton

Section Manager - Electron Beam

Mike Russell

Section Manager - Friction and Forge Processes

TWI Consultants

Gene Mathers

Consultant Welding Engineer, Consultancy Service Group, TWI, 1994 – to date.

Providing a welding engineering/metallurgy consultancy service to the Industrial Members of TWI. This encompasses advising on welding process applications, weldability, welding metallurgy, failure investigation, shop floor trouble shooting, productivity and production engineering, QA and QC aspects etc. across a wide range of industry sectors.

Manager – School of Welding Technology, TWI, Cambridge, 1991 - 1994.

To control and administer the school which provides courses ranging from hands-on-skills training for the tradesman to classroom based welding engineering courses for postgraduates

Bill Lucas

Professor Bill Lucas is a Consultant in the Arc Processes and Welding Engineering Department at TWI. He received his doctorate from Queen's University of Belfast. He was initially employed by Leyland Motors for four years. He joined TWI in 1970. After 16 years in process research, he became Head of the Arc Welding Department in 1986. In 1987, he became the first research engineer at TWI to be awarded Doctor of Science for his contribution to arc welding and computer technology. He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Liverpool since 1997 where he is the Chairman of the Industry Advisory Board in the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering. He is currently the Chairman of the International Institute of Welding (IIW), Commission XII 'Arc Welding Processes and Production Systems'.

His research work has been largely devoted to process development and application studies in welding and cutting and production. His current research projects include developing vision sensor for welding process control and the use of microwaves for material processing. Over 100 of his papers have been published. He has been responsible for several National and European projects.