February 2021 Volume 3

FORGING RESEARCH

minimize the coefficient of friction between the forged metal and the die, and has produced results suggesting there is significant potential for the use of permanent coatings in the forging industry. FIAWorkforce Development Toolkit Virtual spaces have immense potential for sharing real-time information, enabling offsite attendance, and relaying forging specific information to DOD personnel. This collaboration with FIA will create an appropriate virtual space, filled with forging specific courses serving industry and government. Courses developed through the project will receive input from companies on the cutting-edge of industry innovation, as well as best practices for the industry to leverage new technologies. In order to ensure this content is accessible, this project will establish a digital library of educational resources to ensure continual workforce development. A comprehensive, industry-led workforce development program will be constructed and deployed via the FIA website and e-learning platform to equip the next generation workforce with advanced knowledge that serves the defense industry. These courses will translate into better-designed forgings, improved knowledge of materials and design tools, and overall improved knowledge across all processes in a forging operation. Intelligent Monitoring of the Impression Die Forging Process Ensuring part-to-part consistency and process integrity is crucial for the forging supply chain, as well as end-user performance. This project will quantitatively demonstrate the potential savings to other forging industry members and provide the foundation for intelligent, automated forging processes. Ensuring that a sustainable, skilled workforce is available has been a growing problem for the manufacturing supply base as a whole, and FIA has identified automation of production operations as an industry imperative in their Technical Roadmap report. A Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system model is ideal to monitor a forging process. This innovative project will create an engineering case documenting a before and after comparison of MIMO sensor monitoring. This project will document key metrics that matter to the forging industry to demonstrate the potential benefits of applying a sensor array to an impression die forging. FORGE-IT Supply Center Support The FORGE-IT program is an ongoing effort that was awarded within the new IFT Program in order to continue the team’s efforts to support both the DOD and the Forging industry. FORGE IT addresses the myriad of supply chain and technical issues at the DLA Major Subordinate Commands, suppliers to DLA, and DOD locations by researching, developing, and enhancing new and existing tools to improve the DLA supply chain for forged parts. The objective of this project is to address and mitigate supply chain and technical issues due to the disproportionate number of unfilled forging orders that DLA sees in its procurement of forged parts. The teams include experienced forging industry application engineers

that review forging designs, strengthen supply chains, and address real-time procurement problems associated with national stock numbered items with forged content. FORGE-IT will deploy new methods of analyzing data and will then research, develop, and implement supply chain solutions to reduce DLA’s costs. The team will work closely with FIA to develop content for virtual and live workforce development seminars and will deploy this content across DLA and DOD sites. FORGE-IT will deliver process improvements, educate DLA and DOD personnel about forgings, assist with technical data package reviews, reverse engineering, identification of potential forging conversions, system redesign, and identification of capable forging suppliers. FORGE-IT will continue to be on call to provide direct assistance to DOD and industry with technical aspects of solicitations and contracts, and help suppliers find forge shops to ensure a robust industrial forging supply chain. FORGE-IT assistance requests can be directed to FORGE-IT team lead Dekland Barnum - dekland.barnum@ati.org or reached by phone at 843-760-3538. Closing Remarks The DLA-funded IFT projects extend over an estimated five-year period and focuses on technical projects and supply chain research and development. Awarded projects vary in schedule length, but all are three to five years covering a phased project approach. All projects have an implementation phase that culminates with a demonstration in a production environment, such as a forge shop. If your company is interested in collaborating with FDMC on a forging project, or require assistance on a tooling for defense items, please contact FDMC Executive Director, Charles Edens at 843-760-3376, charles.edens@ati.org; or FORGE-IT team lead, Dekland Barnum at 843-760-3538, dekland.barnum@ati.org. This research is sponsored by the DLA-Troop Support, Philadelphia, PA and the Defense Logistics Agency Information Operations, J68, Research &Development, Ft. Belvoir, VA. ■

Dekland Barnum, FDMC Project Manager Phone: 843-760-3538 Email: dekland.barnum@ati.org

FIA MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2021 76