Professor Stewart Williams

Professor of Welding Science and Engineering

Welding Engineering & Laser Processing Centre

Contact Professor Stewart Williams

Tel: +44 (0) 1234 754693
Email: s.williams@cranfield.ac.uk
ORCID

Background

Prior to commencing at Cranfield University Professor Williams was at BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre for nearly 20 years. Here he managed a research group investigating mainly laser based manufacturing processes for aerospace and defence applications. This included micro-machining, drilling of fine holes, surface treatments and welding. He was responsible for development of a laser based wire marking method from which a company was set up to exploit the technology. He was also heavily involved in development and qualification of friction stir welding for Airbus.

Previously he was a development engineer at a small company, Edinburgh Instruments where he initially worked on CO₂ waveguide lasers and their accessories. Subsequently he developed laser systems for resistor trimming and medical applications. Professor Williams obtained a degree in physics and a PhD in laser physics from Royal Holloway College at the University of London.

Current activities

Main research activities are focused on additive manufacture and laser processing. Additive manufacture research is targeted at large scale engineering structures using the wire plus arc additive manufacture (WAAM) process. A multi project multi-client programme has been put in place, WAAMMat, aimed at maturing the technology so that it can be exploited by industry. The research is tackling problems such as automation, mechanical properties, residual stress and distortion and how to build complex structures. The programme comprises more than 20 activities including student projects, industry contracts and government funded projects. As well as industrial partners we have several academic partners helping us achieve our goal.

Laser processing research is based around using fundamental material interaction parameters for different processes. This is being applied to industrial problems such as laser hybrid welding of pipelines and laser cutting. Pulsed laser research is targeting problems such as dissimilar welding, composite processing and peening.

Clients

Clients of Professor Williams are wide ranging and include:

Airbus
ARA
ASD Westok
Astrium
AWE
BAE Systems
Bombardier Aerospace
Culham Centre for Fusion Energy
DSTL
EADS
Faiveley Transport
GE or oil and gas
GKN Aerospace
Heerema
LCT
Lockheed Martin UK
Mann Diesel
MBDA
Rolls-Royce
Statoil
Subsea Seven
Tata Steel

Publications

Articles in journals
Conference papers
Books

Articles In Journals

Conference Papers

Zhu S, Salas Avila JR, Yin W, Peyton AJ, Ding J & Williams S (2020) Real-time measurement of electrical conductivity for aluminium wires using a novel calibration method. In: 2020 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), Dubrovnik, 25-28 May 2020.
Abbaszadeh M, Honnige J, Martina F, Kashaev N, Williams SW & Klusemann B (2020) Numerical study of rolling process on the plastic strain distribution in wire + arc additive manufactured Ti-6Al-4V. In: 22nd International ESAform Conference on Material Forming; ESAform 2019, Vitoria-Gasteiz, 8-10 May 2019.
Kissinger T, Gomis B, Ding J, Williams SW & Tatam RP (2019) Measurements of wire + arc additive manufacturing layer heights during arc operation using coherent range-resolved interferometry (CO-RRI). In: Joint Special Interest Group meeting between euspen and ASPE Advancing Precision in Additive Manufacturing, Nantes, 16-18 September 2019.
Zhang X, Syed AK, Biswal R, Martina F, Ding J & Williams S (2019) High cycle fatigue and fatigue crack growth rate in additive manufactured titanium alloys. In: ICAF 2019 Structural Integrity in the Age of Additive Manufacturing, Krakow, 2-7 June 2019.
Zhang X, Martina F, Syed AK, Wang X, Ding J & Williams SW (2017) Fatigue crack growth in additive manufactured titanium: residual stress control and life evaluation method development. In: ICAF 2017 35th ICAF Conference and 29th ICAF Symposium, Nagoya, 5-9 June 2017.
Charrett TOH, Bandari YK, Michel F, Ding J, Williams SW & Tatam RP (2017) Laser speckle velocimetry for robot manufacturing. In: SPIE Optical Metrology 2017, Munich, 26-29 June 2017. Dataset/s: http://dx.doi.org/10.17862/cranfield.rd.4868222
Roy MJ, Williams S, Colegrove P, Ganguly S & Hönnige JR (2016) Residual stress characterization and control in the additive manufacture of large scale metal structures. In: International Conference on Residual Stresses (ICRS-10), Sydney, 3-7 July 2016.
Xu F, Madhaven N, Dhokia V, McAndrew AR, Colegrove PA, Williams S, Henstridge A & Newman ST (2016) Multi-sensor system for wire-fed additive manufacture of titanium alloys. In: 26th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM 2016), Seoul, 27-30 June 2016.
Bandari Y, Charrett T, Michel F, Ding J, Williams S & Tatam R (2016) Compensation strategies for robotic motion errors for additive manufacturing. In: 27th Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, 2016, Austin, Texas, 8-10 August 2016.
Suder W, Ganguly S, Williams SW & Yudodibroto B (2014) Mixing of filler wire in deep penetration hybrid laser arc welding . In: 67th IIW International Conference, Seoul, 17-18 July 2014.
Martina F, Williams S & Colegrove P (2013) Design of an empirical process model and algorithm for the Tungsten Inert Gas wire+arc additive manufacture of TI-6AL-4V components. In: 24th International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, 2013, Austin, Texas, 12-14 August 2013.
Martina F, Williams S & Colegrove P Improved microstructure and increased mechanical properties of additive manufacture produced TI-6AL-4V by interpass cold rolling. In: 24th International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, 2013, Austin, Texas, 12-14 August 2013.
Marsic V, Giuliano A, Pozzi M, Zhu M & Williams S (2012)
Performance Testing of a Low Power Consumption Wireless Sensor Communication System Integrated with an Energy Harvesting Power Source
. In: Third International Conference on Sensor Device Technologies and Applications 2012 (SENSORDEVICES 2012), Rome, 19 August 2012.
Marsic V, Giuliano A, Pozzi M, Zhu M & Williams S (2012) Performance testing of a low power consumption wireless sensor communication system integrated with an energy harvesting power source. In: Third International Conference on Sensor Device Technologies and Applications 2012 (SENSORDEVICES 2012), Rome, 19 August 2012.
Marsic V, Zhu M & Williams S (2012) Design and implementation of a wireless sensor communication system with low power consumption for energy harvesting technology. In: 2011 19th Telecommunications Forum (TELFOR 2011), Belgrade, 22-24 November 2011.
Williams S & Suder W (2011) Use of fundamental laser material interaction parameters in laser welding. In: 2011 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, Baltimore, 1 May 2011.
Irving P, Ma Y, Zhang X, Servetti G, Williams S, Moore G, Dos Santos J & Pacchione M (2009) Control of crack growth rates and crack trajectories for enhanced fail safety and damage tolerance in welded aircraft structures. In: ICAF 2009 Bridging the gap between theory & operational practice, Rotterdam, 27-29 May 2009.
Williams SW (2009) Rolling of friction stir welds for residual stress and distortion control. In: 9th International Seminar on Numerical Analysis of Weldability, Graz-Seggau, Austria, 28 September 2009.
Colegrove PA, Simiand PE, Varughese A, Williams SW & Yapp D (2008) Evaluation of a drilling model approach to represent laser spot microwelding. In: Trends in Welding Engineering, Georgia, USA, 1-6 June 2008.
Colegrove PA & Williams SW (2008) The impact of different types of welding processes on the residual stress and distortion in 4mm thick butt welds of ship plate. In: 8th International Conference Trends in Welding Research, Georgia, USA, 1 June 2008.
Kong CJ, Williams S, Colegrove P & Lopes G (2007) The micro-welding ability of 100W high brightness fibre laser on 316L stainless steel. In: 26th International Congress on Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics, Orlando, Fl, 29 October 2007.
Ambat R, Jariyaboon M, Davenport AJ, Williams SW, Price DA & Wescott A (2002) Micro-electrochemical investigations of friction stir welds in aluminium aerospace alloy 2024. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Corrosion Congress, Granada, Spain, 22 September 2002.
Hannour F, Davenport AJ, Williams SW, Morgan PC & Figures CC (2001) Corrosion Behaviour of Laser Treated Friction Stir Welds in High Strength Aluminium Alloys. In: Proceedings of 3rd International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Kobe, Japan, 27 September 2001.
Assuncao DE, Ganguly S, Yapp D & Williams S Conduction mode: broadening the range of applications for laser welding. In: International Conference on Advances in Welding Science and Technology for Construction, Energy and Transportation (AWST 2010), Istanbul, 11 July 2010.
Assuncao E, Williams S & Yapp D Interaction time effects on the transition between conduction and keyhole laser welding. In: 29th International Congress on Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics, Anaheim, California, 24 September 2010.

Books

Neto L, Williams S, Ding J, Hönnige J & Martina F (2020) Mechanical properties enhancement of additive manufactured Ti-6Al-4V by machine hammer peening. In: Advanced Surface Enhancement: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Advanced Surface Enhancement (INCASE 2019) - Research Towards Industrialisation, Springer, p. 121-132.
Colegrove PA, Shercliff H, Robson J, Kamp N, Sullivan A & Williams S (2007) Integrated Process Modelling of Friction Stir Welding. In: Mathematical Modelling of Weld Phenomena 8. Cerjak H, Bhadeshia HKDH, Kozeschnik E (ed.), Graz, Austria: styria Printshop Druck GmbH, p. 649-679, ed. First.
Williams SW (2004) Drilling. In: Handbook of Laser Technology and Applications, Institute of Physics Publishing, p. 1633-1653.

Contact Professor Stewart Williams

Tel: +44 (0) 1234 754693
Email: s.williams@cranfield.ac.uk
ORCID

Research students

Julio Rato Rafael Coroado

Research Assistant