The Welding Development Programme at Terex Materials Processing (MP) Ballymoney plant – a key component fabrication site for Powerscreen – has received the “seal of approval” from the Welding Institute (TWI) for the very high quality of both its teaching ability and finished work.

Representatives of the Institute were so impressed with the overall standard of work they requested to hold their March “Best Practice Forum” at the County Antrim site.

The Welding Institute is the UK’s leading professional engineering institution for welding personnel with almost 2,100 professional members around the world. Its core aim is to deliver globally recognised and valued qualifications for welding and to promote the vocational and professional development of welding as a career.

The forum, held on March 12th, saw attendees from various leading Northern Ireland-based manufacturing businesses; Local Government Authorities, Manufacturing NI, Invest NI and TWI representatives to deliver presentations on the theme: “Welding Skill Shortages within Industry Sectors”.

A general welcome and overview was delivered by Terex MP Ballymoney Plant Manager Jonny Hanna, followed by presentations from TWI Chairman Alan Haley and TWI Accredited Trainer Tommy Walker, who both outlined the shortages of welding skills within the manufacturing sector and the ongoing efforts to develop best practice strategies for welding / fabrication as well as apprenticeships in the future.

Terex MP Ballymoney was singled out for praise by the speakers for its comprehensive hands on approach to its Welding Development Programme, who also commended Terex MP and Powerscreen for doing their bit to tackle the shortage of locally trained welders in the UK and Ireland.

As part of the programme Instructors from TWI have been working with Terex MP Ballymoney to assess and accredit the performance of welders with the award of ENISO 9606 coding certification and to develop the programme as an example of best practice within the manufacturing industry.

Professionally trained and certificated welders improve customer confidence; reduce the need for rework with all its associated costs, whilst improving repeatability, quality and productivity.

Welders are supervised by highly experienced mentors throughout their welding training from basic start up to advanced level with TWI providing a strict audit and assessment process to successfully deliver a fully coded ENISO 9606 welder through the programme.

Speaking at the event Jonny Hanna said: “We have been successfully working with TWI for a number of years as we have developed our highly successful Professional Development Scheme which really delivers for our welders.”

“Although our welders are very experienced, they benefit from receiving industry-experienced mentoring by some of the most skilled and experienced welders in Northern Ireland. They build their skills over time in a real manufacturing environment with close scrutiny from TWI and at the end our welders receive full ENISO 9606 coding certification.”

“This certifies the high standards that our welders are producing and provides an internationally recognised accreditation, demonstrating to customers the exceptional quality of the fabrication in all Powerscreen products. This course incorporated parts of the NVQ programme but brought in more practical environment aspects of Powerscreen including safety training.”