Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen dropped in to The Welding Institute (TWI) to see for himself the world-class training and research and development facility.

TWI is the world’s largest provider of welding technology and inspection related training with centres strategically located around the world.

The Middlesbrough-based technology and training centre opened in 2016 in a new £10 million purpose-built facility, which was developed in partnership with Middlesbrough Council and the Tees Valley Combined Authority. TWI’s investment in the centre was supported by the European Regional Development Fund and the Combined Authority.

The centre’s research and development work covers a range of technologies for sectors including oil and gas, chemical, power and transport. It also offers training and examination facilities with specially designed training suites and state-of-the-art equipment for underwater inspection, plastics jointing, weld inspection and non-destructive testing applications.

The Middlesbrough site also houses a local base for TWI Certification Ltd, which provides compliance verification of manufacturing companies and welder training organisations against European and international standards for welding, joining and materials integrity.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “TWI‘s mission is to develop technology, new innovation and help grow the local economy.

“The training centre supports our local industry and positions the Tees Valley as a centre of excellence in the engineering sector, with advanced training and qualification opportunities.

“The new Mayoral Development Corporation is looking at advanced manufacturing, clean technology and next generation technologies, which TWI is already doing with its partners and we need to tap into its expertise to stay ahead of the game and make sure that going forward the local economy is ahead of not just the national picture but the global one.”

Mike Russell, operations director at TWI, said: “We were pleased to demonstrate to the Mayor our new dive facility, advanced arc welding processes, plastics joining processes and the materials processing lab.

“Although this is a new building for us, Tees Valley is our largest and longest established regional centre and we are here in this fantastic new centre to support local companies, SMEs and partners across the region.”