Research projects


  • AUTOLAS: Switch successfully and competitively from manual to automated/robotised welding

    You would like to (partially) automate/robotise your welding department but you have doubts...
    Your welding department has already been automated but you want to further optimise this (for smaller series, etc.)...

    Start: 01-01-2017
    End: 31-12-2018
  • INNOLAS: Cost reduction by using innovative welding processes

    The Belgian Welding Institute has performed a collective research project about the innovative variants of the commonly used welding processes GTAW and MIG/MAG welding.

    The project aimed to determine to what extent these variants may contribute to a reduction of the production costs (welding costs) by increasing the productivity and the efficiency of the process.
    By means of this project, the participating companies received a better understanding of the capabilities of these modified welding processes, in order to facilitate the introduction of these new welding processes in the Belgian industry.

    Start: 01-04-2007
    End: 31-03-2009
  • Real-time quality control for welding processes

    The Belgian Welding Institute will start up a research project to demonstrate the feasibility of quality control using systems for inline, real time defect detection during welding.

    Start: 01-01-2020
    End: 01-01-2020
  • Steel S4EV: Steel solutions for Safe and Smart Structures of Electric Vehicles

    STEEL S4 EV aims at putting high strength steels at the forefront of a new trend in electric vehicles: light vehicles with three or four wheels that comply with crash regulation and with more restrictive Euro NCAP demands. Weld joint design and welding methodologies research to maintain the material properties in the weld area, assuring robustness and long term durability. Cost-effective low-investment manufacturing will be achieved by a modular and flexible structural design: a complex 3D skeleton frame of welded tubes, bent with high accuracy using programmed laser cuts will enable the production of different vehicles sharing the same tooling.

    Start: 01-09-2018
    End: 01-09-2021
  • WRIST: Innovative Welding Processes for New Rail Infrastructures

    WRIST will develop and demonstrate two flexible and cost-effective joining processes for rails, that will address the key degradation mechanisms experienced by welds in current rail infrastructure. The new processes also recognise the move of the industry toward higher speeds and axle loads and the need to increase capacity. 

    Start: 01-05-2015
    End: 30-04-2016