TWI / The Welding Institute welcomed over 500 attendees to their headquarters near Cambridge, UK on 7 July 2026 for the Welding, Joining and Manufacturing Conference and Exhibition (WeldJoinExpo) 2026.

This flagship event for welding, joining and allied technologies in the UK attracted over 570 attendees on the day, as well as numerous exhibitors and presenters from both TWI Industrial Member and non-Industrial Member companies, including many of the best-known names in industry, such as Rolls-Royce, Caterpillar, Make UK and Make UK Defence, the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Council, the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) and JCB, who brought along around 25 apprentices to soak up the atmosphere and take part in an augmented reality (AR) welding competition.

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne and her delegation visited TWI Cambridge in her capacity as an Honorary Fellow of The Welding Institute. The Princess Royal, who opened three new buildings at the headquarters in 2015, was given a tour of the facilities and showed great interest in and knowledge of materials joining technologies and STEM professions.

One of the most popular parts of WeldJoinExpo26 was the exhibition area held in the iconic 'Street', featuring 33 companies and organisations including Fronius, Hypertherm, Kuka Systems UK Ltd, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, JCB, Oxford Sensors Ltd, and the Nuclear Industry Association. There was also an exhibition of welding art and a display of welding-related stamps from around the world.

WeldJoinExpo26 featured a suite of workshops including both open drop-in sessions and pre-booked sessions for TWI Industrial Members. Industry-specific workshops covered aerospace, defence, nuclear, oil and gas, and space, with dedicated workshops for TWI Certification, Professional Membership, TWI Software, and non-destructive testing. 'Future Technologies' rooms hosted presentations on how high-quality research is driving transformation.

In total 154 presenters included experts from TWI, Amentum, Babcock International, the Department of Business and Trade, EDF, the European Space Agency, Framatome, Fronius, Innovate UK, ITER, KUKA Systems Ltd, Lloyd's Register, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Petrobras, Rolls-Royce SMR, UK Space Agency, Weld Australia, and more.

The main engineering hall was opened for the event, with dedicated displays from Instrom Mechanical Testing, Novarc, and Fronius. Stations offered insights into fracture testing, laser welding, electron beam welding, high-speed testing, friction processes, plastics welding and joining, fatigue performance and testing, surface engineering and advanced coatings, thermal processing technologies, arc processes, additive manufacturing processes, and NDT solutions including phased array ultrasonics, eddy current array testing, long range ultrasonics, and NDT Cobots.

TWI partnered with JCB to create the WeldJoinExpo 'Skills Zone' for those starting their careers. The JCB apprentices competed in a special augmented reality (AR) welding competition held in conjunction with Seabery, with prizes for the best AR welds produced.