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 Welcome New Members!
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FIA is pleased to welcome three new Members.
Olson Industries, located in Burgettstown, PA, provides furnaces to the forging industry. Joe Martin, Vice President, will serve as Official Representative. (724) 947-3300
Cerro Fabricated Products, LLC, located in Weyers Cave, VA., produces custom aluminum and brass impression die forgings for the aerospace, automotive, defense, hardware, industrial equipment, off-highway and power generation markets. George Solanick, President, will serve as Official Representative. (540) 453-0411
Pioneer Forge, Div. of Powers and Sons, LLC. Located in Plymouth, MI, Powers and Sons, LLC is an impression die forger serving the Defense, Off Highway & Agricultural and Automotive/Truck markets. Ron North, Sales Manager serve as Official Representative. (734) 748-5603
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| Diane Rothaermel has Retired! |
It is with much regret but warm wishes that FIA announces the retirement of Diane Rothaermel, effective May 31st. Diane has been an essential part of FIA for over 33 years and has been a tremendous asset to the Association and all of our members. Many of you know Diane as the friendly voice on the phone that is able to help you in whatever way is needed.
Diane is looking forward to traveling and spending more time with her children and grandchildren. While we are excited for her to start this next chapter in her life, we hope she misses us as much as we know we will miss her.
On behalf of the Association and all of our members, Diane, GOOD LUCK & BEST WISHES!
A personal note from Diane:
"I just want to say thank you all for being a great group of professional, courteous and helpful people. I will miss FIA and the wonderful staff. Forgers & Suppliers, keep up the good work, North America needs you!!!"
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Joe Boni joins FIA Staff
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 We are pleased to announce that Joseph R. Boni has joined the FIA Staff as Controller and Treasurer, effective May 19th. He succeeds Diane Rotheramel who retired after 33 years of service on May 31, 2014.
Joe graduated from both John Carroll University with a BSBA and Case Western Reserve University with a Master of Accountancy and an MBA. Joe is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Joe started his career with KPMG LLP in Cleveland, one of the Big 4 public accounting firms, serving a variety of clients including manufacturing, retail and distribution companies. After leaving KPMG as a Senior Manager, Joe served as Director of Tax at American Greetings, Treasurer of Roadway Corporation and Vice President and Treasurer of DPL Inc.
Joe lives in Novelty, Ohio with his wife and two daughters. Please join us in welcoming Joe to the FIA team!
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FIA Board Change
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Ken Mathas, President of Cornell Forge, has accepted Chairman Arnold Visser's appointment to fill FIA's open board seat that was vacated by Bruce Liimatainen of A Finkl & Sons retirement. In addition, Ken has accepted the appointment to serve as Vice Chairman for the 2014/2015 year.
Please join us in thanking Ken for stepping back on the Board and for agreeing to serve as Vice Chairman.
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2014 Annual Meeting Successfully Inaugurates FIA's Second Century
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Building on the solid foundation created over the past 100 years, FIA at its Annual Meeting celebrated 101 years at the 2014 FIA Annual Meeting at the Marriott Marco Island Resort in Florida. The meeting opened the evening of May 3 with an informal beach reception and dinner for 220 people-albeit inside due to weather. But the weather quickly improved on Sunday, and business sessions focused on the future, of both manufacturing and the workforce. Monday opened with the Safety Awards, presented to companies showing excellent and/or much improved plant safety records in 2013. (Click Here for more info). Monday's sessions included an economic update, planning business strategy and succession, and future disruptive technologies. But the highlight speaker of the meeting was Mark King, current CEO of TaylorMade-Adidas Golf, who led the company's turnaround from a $300 million company to over $1 billion in just a few short years. In a very relaxed and humorous way, Mr. King relayed lessons learned during the turnaround and how to use them in our businesses. To view many of the slide presentations for Annual Meeting business sessions, Click Here.
 At Monday evening's Annual Dinner/Dance, outgoing FIA Chairman Simon Ormerod (right), Ajax Rolled Ring & Machine, introduced incoming Chairman, Arnold Visser, IMT Partnership, to the membership. Thanks Simon, and congratulations Arnold!
To continue to answer the need for additional funds to maintain a high level of quality, content driven speakers, the FIA Board of Directors established a Benefactor program for the Annual Meeting. FIA wishes to acknowledge and thank the following companies for their generous financial support of the 2014 Annual Meeting:
Premier level contributors
Electralloy
Ellwood Quality Steels Co.
Champion level contributor
MacLean-Fogg Component Solutions, Metform
Supporting level contributors
Ajax Rolled Ring & Machine
Eaton Steel Bar Co.
Ellwood City Forge
Forged Products, Inc.
Gerdau (GSN)
Inductotherm Group, Inductoheat Div.
Meadville Forging Co., A MFC Group Co.
The Queen City Forging Co.
Ulven Forging Inc.
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Safety Award Winners Receive Plaques at FIA Annual Meeting
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Pictured below are the FIA Safety Award recipients that were in attendance at the FIA Annual Meeting of Members, to receive their Safety Award Plaques. A record number of 133 facilities participated this year, congratulations to all.
From left to right:
David Perez, Sypris Technologies Incorporated-Toluca, Group IV - Third Place
Gasper Buffa, Carolina Forge a MFC Group Company, Group II - Third Place
Rick Creed, Webber Metals Incorporated, Group IV - Second Place and Most Improved
Ron Hahn, Scot Forge Company, Spring Grove, Group IV - First Place
Bill Hoban, Green Bay Drop Forge, Group I - Third Place
Hector Martinez, FRISA Forjados - Superalloys Plant, Group III - First Place & Most Improved
Joseph Cipriani, Keystone Forging Company, Group I - Most Improved
Joe Shearn, Jorgensen Forge Company, Group II - Second Place
Annual Safety Awards categories are broken into four size groups: Up to 80 employees; 81 to 175 employees; 176 to 325 employees; and over 326 employees, ensuring that each plant is benchmarked against similar sized facilities.
First, second, third place and Most Improved Safety Awards are then awarded for plants having the lowest Recordable Incidence Rate and Most Improvement, in their size group.
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| Gerdau Receives Platinum Anvil Award |
 FIERF is pleased to welcome Gerdau as the newest Platinum Anvil Society Member of the Foundation! Jack Finlayson accepted the award from FIERF President Rob Mayer on behalf of Gerdau facilities in Michigan and Texas.
Corporate giving is the backbone of the Foundation's ability to provide programs and services on behalf of the industry, making up 93% of contributions to FIERF over the past year.
Thanks to all individuals and companies who financially support FIERF.
Pictured (left to right) Rob Mayer, FIERF President, Tim Spieth, Jack Finlayson and Jay Murthy of Gerdau GSN and Mike Lindsey Gerdau (GLN)
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ALCOA Receives Heavy Press Recognition
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 FIA was well represented at the recent ASM International Heavy Press Recognition Ceremony on May 9 at Alcoa Cleveland Works.
ASM International and FIA are paying tribute to the world's giant presses that enabled quantum changes in the approach of modern aircraft design by producing large, forged monolithic structures. In turn, this capability provided designers with greater flexibility in the application of new alloys; lighter, stronger, and affordable aero structures; and more powerful and fuel efficient gas turbine engines. The opportunity to recognize these great presses of the world coincides with the 100th anniversary celebrations of both the Forging Industry Association and ASM International as these organizations celebrate advances in metalworking technology.
Sunniva Collins of ASM International made the formal plaque presentation to Mike Kenny, ALCOA Location Manager. Congratulations, ALCOA!
(Click here to view press release)
 
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| FIERF Approved $103,000 for 2014 Research and Education Projects |
FIERF Approved $103,000 for 2014 Research and Education Projects at four universities involving seven students. The projects are:
Additive Manufacturing versus Forging Fabrication - A Comparative Study, Case Western Reserve University and Wharton Business School.
Objective of the study is to compare performance and today's economics and cost trends in the future of fabricating parts by additive manufacturing versus forging. Furthermore students will gain in-depth insight into mechanical properties of forged parts and processing parameters within a forge shop. Industry partners are Green Bay Drop Forge and Solid Concepts.
A Study in the Effect of Violating Forging Hammer Manufacturers Recommendations, Cleveland State University
There are practical reasons for violating manufacturer's recommendations such as ergonomic considerations to minimize operator fatigue, increasing throughput or the size of the forging requires usage of space outside the recommended forging area. This educational project will provide finite element stress results for visual observation of the effect of violating the manufacturer's recommendations and a guide as to where to search for the initiation of small fatigue cracks that can develop into major structural failures. The involved students will gain in-depth insights into hammer shop practices and challenges.
Ultra-Fine Grain Processing of Steel Billet, Illinois Institute of Technology
The technical objectives of this effort and the related technical questions to be answered are:
- Quantify the flow stresses and formability of sub-micron/ultra-fine grained 8620 steel as a function of grain size in the warm forging temperature regime. Starting with conventional 8620 material with a grain size of 40-50 microns, warm rolling techniques at temperature between 400 to 650˚C will be used to dynamically recrystallize the material to produce material with average grain sizes ranging between 10 to <1 micron in diameter.
- With input from FIERF and industry partners, warm forging requirements such as tonnage, die stresses and wear will be compiled and used to target the optimum size of ultra-fine grained microstructures. This analysis will provide metrics by which the warm forging characteristics of conventional and ultra-fine grained material can be evaluated and quantified.
- Analyze the needed level of development and expected cost for producing billet stock with ultra-fine grained microstructures versus potential return on investment (ROI) to the forging industry.
Exploration of New Forging Die Materials, University of North Texas
A new class of alloys that has increasingly attracted interest are the so-called "High Entropy Alloys", which are 5-component systems based upon, for example CoCrFeNiAl, AlCoCrCuFeNi, or TiZrNbMoV. These materials in principal form a single bcc phase, although there is considerable effort underway to understand the compositional ranges over which the materials are stable. The primary objective of this research project is to assess whether high entropy alloys can be used for dies and how they compare when benchmarked against H13. The team will develop a preliminary database of the room temperature and elevated temperature properties of two high-entropy alloys, and assess the thermal stability as a function of thermal exposures. UNT will also produce at least one high entropy alloy die insert and assess performance in conjunction with a forging partner.
For more detailed information related to these projects please contact carola@forging.org
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Introducing High School Students to Engineering
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  On April 19th, Roy Hardy gave the "Engineering as a Career" presentation to STEM juniors and seniors at Rocky River High School in Rocky River, Ohio. The goal of this presentation is to expose high school students to the field of engineering and to introduce them to the forging industry. 22 students attended the presentation and after Q&A, 3 students signed up for a plant tour of SIFCO Forge.
On May 27th, Matt Morrison - General Manager gave the students a presentation on SIFCO and then led the young men on a tour of a "hammer forge shop". The students were impressed (see note below), and said it was an "amazing experience".
One of the missions of FIA is to attract and retain a talented workforce for industry, and recruiting young people to pursue engineering degrees is an important component of filling our "feed stock" for the future. Feel free to use the referenced power point and contact your local high school about providing this program, and don't forget to include a plant tour of your facility. If you have any questions, please contact Roy Hardy (roy@forging.org) and don't forget to send us your results with pictures for future Quick Reads!
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June/July 2014 Safety, Health & Environmental Newsletter
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In this Issue:
. Significant Near Miss Involving a Fiberglass Extension Ladder - Ladder
Inspections - Why they are so important
. OSHA Recordkeeping Quiz
. Safety Star Awards
. Do You Have a Safety or Environment Question...?
. Safety, Health & Environmental Affairs Committee Needs YOU!
. COMMITTEE MISSION STATEMENT
. 2014 - 2015 FIA Safety, Health & Environmental Committee Roster
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Association of Indian Forging Industry
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The Association of Indian Forging Industry (AIFI) provides a publication "Focus" that gives you a comprehensive knowledge on the status of Indian economy and their Forging Industry update. For more information, you can visit their website at http://www.indianforging.org
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| US Army seeks sources for a variety of forged parts |
The U.S. Army Contracting Command - Warren (ACC-WRN) (WVA) is issuing this sources sought synopsis as a means of conducting market research to identify parties having an interest in and the resources to provide various ferrous and nonferrous castings and forgings ranging in sizes from 2 cubic inches up to 5000 cubic inches used in the manufacture of large caliber cannon, howitzers and mortar systems. Click here for more information.
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| Theory & Applications of Forging & Die Design - Cleveland - June 16-19, 2014 | |
The "Theory and Applications of Forging & Die Design" school continues to evolve, reflecting new insights into forging technology and the wide availability of metal flow simulation software. This four-day school is taught by a team of industry experts and engineering professors who work together to carefully explain principles and practice. We urge you to join the 2000+ forging employees who have already attended this course.
This will be the only offering of this program in 2014. Class size is limited, (last year's class filled up early, leaving many closed out), please don't wait to register.
Click here to view/print the full program.
For additional information, contact George Layne at: glayne@forging.org, or by phone at 216-781-6260
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Complete Information & Registration for 19th Forgemasters Meeting now Available
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The 19th International Forgemasters Meeting (IFM 2014) will be held this September 29-October 3 in Tokyo, Japan. The IFM traditionally brings together hundreds of open die forging and supplier executives representing leading manufacturing companies from across the globe. This extraordinary event will showcase the best in forging technical presentations for the worldwide forging community.
Organized by The Steel Castings and Forgings Association of Japan (JSCFA), the 19th IFM official program has been released and is now available on the JSCFA website http://www.ifm2014.com/index.html. Please note that early bird registration ends June 30, 2014.
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