JULY 16, 2026 – SALZBURG, AUSTRIA (within IIW 2026, July 12–17, 2026)

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The IIW Symposium on Intelligent Manufacturing 2026 (IWM-Symposium 2026) is dedicated to Scalable and Applicable AI solutions that Empower Advancements in welding and allied processes, with a particular emphasis on solutions that work both in the lab and on the factory floor. This Symposium is part of the technical events of the 79th IIW Annual Assembly and International Conference on Welding and Joining, to be held in Salzburg, Austria, July 12–17, 2026. Building on the success of previous Intelligent Welding Manufacturing Symposia, which collectively featured over 100 presentations and led to multiple topical collections in Welding in the World, the 2026 edition broadens its focus to Scalable and Applicable AI solutions, attracting contributions from both academia and industry.

“Manufacturing” is interpreted broadly to include welding, joining, additive manufacturing, machining, forming, surface engineering, inspection, repair, and remanufacturing, across both discrete and continuous production systems. We especially welcome contributions where AI has a clear path to deployment, including prototypes validated in realistic environments or at industrial partners.

TOPICS

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Scalable AI architectures for manufacturing, including foundation and large models tailored to manufacturing data, multi-modal learning (images, time series, 3D geometry, text), and simulation-to-reality/domain adaptation strategies.
• AI for welding, joining, and additive manufacturing, covering sensing and monitoring, quality prediction, process optimization, and closed-loop control for processes such as arc, laser, resistance, hybrid welding, and various AM processes (e.g., WAAM, DED, PBF).
• From lab demos to plant-ready systems, such as edge/on-machine/cloud AI deployment, robustness to real-world variability (materials, machines, operators, environments), and lifecycle management of AI models (calibration, drift detection, and re-training at scale).
• Human-centric and robotic manufacturing with AI, including human–robot collaboration, intelligent planning and scheduling for flexible production systems, and decision-support tools for engineers, operators, and inspectors.
• Trustworthy, explainable, and standards-aligned AI, addressing interpretability, safety, reliability, data governance, privacy-preserving and federated learning, benchmarking datasets, open testbeds, and standardization efforts.
• AI in structural integrity, fatigue and fracture of welded and additively manufactured components and structures, addressing experimental data acquisition and big data processing, material informatics, ANN, deep learning, data-driven fatigue and failure prognostics, and standardization approaches.

Both methodological contributions (new AI techniques motivated by manufacturing) and application-driven case studies (including industrial success stories and lessons learned) are encouraged.

Symposium submissions require only Abstracts rather than Full Papers. However, authors will have the option to decide if they wish to submit full papers for review for the Topical Collection (a special issue) in the Welding in the World within three months after the symposium if recommended.

SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZERS

General Chairs
Dr. YuMing Zhang
FAWS, FSME, FIEEE, James R. Boyd Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Kentucky, USA
yuming.zhang@uky.edu
Dr. Stephan Egerland
President Elect -IIW, Fronius International, Austria
egerland.stephan@fronius.com

Program Chair
Dr. Edward (Peng) Wang
Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, USA
pxw206@case.edu

Honorary Chairs
Dr. Xiaoyan Li
Chair-IIW Technical Management Board, Professor Emeritus – Beijing Univ. of Technology, China
Dr. Majid Farajian
Editor-in-chief – Welding in the World, Head – Design and Construction, GSI Gesellschaft für Schweißtechnik International GmbH, Germany
Dr. Luca Costa
CEO – IIW

Secretaries
Dr. Jun Xiao
Professor, Beijing University of Technology, China
jun.xiao@bjut.edu.cn
Dr. Elisabetta Sciaccaluga
Technical Manager – IIW
elisabetta.sciaccaluga@iiwelding.net