Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Thomas Böllinghaus
Source: BAM
Since July 2023, Prof. Dr Thomas Böllinghaus, Head of the Department Component Safety at the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), has been elected as new President of the International Institute of Welding (IIW), the world's leading association of national organizations in the field of welding technology. In the interview, he talks about the importance of welding technology for the 21st century and reveals the goals he has set for his three-year term.
People have been practising welding since the Bronze Age. What is the significance of this comparatively 'archaic' technique for the 21st century?
Indeed: as early as the Bronze Age, people joined metals such as copper and tin by melting them together, in other words, they welded them. Since then, and especially over the last 150 years, welding technology has undergone rapid development, from the invention of electric arc welding at the turn of the 20th century, the standardization of welding processes in the 1950s to the introduction of welding with high-power lasers since the beginning of this millennium. Today, welding is one of the most common industrial manufacturing processes of all and a key technology to any industrialization. It is also indispensable for the transition to climate neutrality, be it in the installation of wind farms or in manufacturing of the facilities for the production, storage and transport of green hydrogen and its derivatives.
What is the importance of the IIW within such this technical developments?
From the very beginning, the aim of the IIW, founded in 1948, was to ensure and increase not only the quality, but above all the safety of welded components. Since then, this has been achieved through two pillars: the intensive international exchange of research and development results in the commissions of the Technical Management Board (TMB) on the one hand, and the establishment of high-quality training up to the level of welding engineer in the commissions of the International Authorisation Board (IAB) on the other, both with the aim of continuously improving the applicability of welding in industry.
In which direction is the technological development in welding going?
In the 21st century, automation and digitalization in welding technology will continue to advance. With the in-situ processing of digitally recorded data during welding, it is now possible to make an immediate process parameter adjustment and thus, to avoid defects in the joints from the outset and even in-situ during weleding. In combination with high-precision robot control, this technology will be used in the future, especially for welding the pipe nodes of offshore wind turbines. Today, welding technology is increasingly AI-ready. Of course, this not only changes its industrial application, but training must also change, in which it will be increasingly important to train the next generation in robot control and data acquisition.
Another important field of application for modern welding technology is additive manufacturing, which is based on welding processes regarding metallic components. Within the IIW, we take this development into account through an intensive research exchange on additive manufacturing. In addition to the well-known title of "International Welding Engineer", the IIW has now introduced the "International Additive Manufacturing Engineer" in cooperation with the European Welding Federation (EWF).
What accents do you want to set as President of the IIW?
I would like to achieve an even more intensive connection of research and development in the TMB with education and training (IAB) on the other hand. At the same time, the IIW should become even more international on a broader basis. At present, around 50 national organisations from about 48 countries are members of our organisation - but there are almost 200 countries worldwide. In the future, we want to strengthen especially regions that are in the process of industrialization, for example countries in Africa or in South America. At the same time, we would like to align the different regions and welding associations in the world even more under the common roof of the IIW. Finally, I would like to promote our young scientists and technicians and inspire them with the very special spirit of our community.
For a long time, welding was considered a rather male activity. Is that still the case today?
The image of welding has changed from "dirty, dusty, dangerous" to "cool, clever, clean" with the changes described above and the introduction of new technologies such as additive manufacturing and its application in the field of new energy sources. As a result, the subject of welding has long since ceased to attract only male trainees, which is particularly evident in African countries, where many female university graduates are interested in a corresponding career path.
Welding as a joining technique has been established at BAM (and its predecessor institutions) since the 1920s. What is the current focus of research at BAM?
For more than 50 years, BAM staff have been exchanging their research and development findings intensively with the international community of the IIW. And after 100 years of welding technology at BAM, the focus is now on the welding challenges associated with 'new' energy carriers like hydrogen or ammonia in the context of transformation to climate neutrality. Germany will have to import up to 80 percent of the demand for these energy carriers. In Europe, the existing natural gas networks are to be used primarily for distribution and supply. Hydrogen, however, behaves differently from natural gas and can thus affect the mechanical properties, especially the ductility (the ability to deform) of steel materials in pipelines, this is particularly true for welded joints.
In countries like Namibia, for example, which provides the best conditions in the world for the production of green hydrogen by means of solar power and electrolysis, chances are given to weld new supply and production systems by using innovative materials, above all most modern steels. As BAM, we support this with top-down capacity building by education of Namibian doctoral students within our close research cooperation with Namibia.
What fascinates you personally about welding? And what welding-related research topics you are currently working on?
I have always been fascinated by welding applications under extreme climatic conditions, e.g. underwater welding, numerical simulations for the prevention of hydrogen cracking and the prevention of corrosion cracking of pipelines for the offshore industry. One of my current research projects at BAM is dedicated to the material compatibility of innovative steels and their welded joints for hydrogen applications in maritime desert climates, like in Namibia.