November 2019 Volume 1

INDUSTRY NEWS & CALENDAR

FIERF.org – The Foundation’s website is filled with resources for industry, students and educators. Here you will find future workforce development resources, information on events and links to the Online Technical Library. Educators and students use the site to access curriculum information, forging process videos, scholarship applications and grant applications.

SIDEBAR: Reflections of Charles H. Smith Jr., Steel Improvement and Forging Company, FIERF Founding President on the Foundation’s 35th Anniversary. During the years that I served as the President of the Drop Forging Association (now identified as the Forging Industry Association), 1956-1958, I had many opportunities to be concerned about the in-roads being made upon the forging industry’s traditional customers by competing methods of producing parts. Within the automotive industry, for instance, such traditional forged parts as crankshafts and connecting rods were being lost as a result of steady improvements in the properties of castings and powered metallurgy. Even the aircraft industry saw the forging industry losing market share as a result of important developments in investment castings and newmaterials. A thoughtful analysis at that time suggested that design engineers throughout America thought all too infrequently about basing their designs for new products upon the advantages inherent in forged products. I for one, thought back to my days at M.I.T. where I took every course then available that had any relationship with the fundamentals of forged metals -- yet all of those courses together accounted for less than a few weeks of study during the four years that I was there. Just as important, in our large research universities, it was extremely rare to find much attention being given toward improvements that would benefit the forging industry although a lot of research was being directed towards the several branches of the foundry industry. Again, a few discreet questions directed to the professors and deans of American’s engineering schools disclosed that the Foundry industry had for many years been financing research at our technical universities through a foundation that had been in existence for decades, and they were getting good results from these efforts! Still, another problem of our industry: -- the lack of attention given to forging technologies in our engineering schools meant that, in addition to the failure to give future design engineers an appreciation of the value of utilizing forged products in their new products, we were also confronted with an inability to hire young engineers fresh out of college, to work in our own industry. There was no technical university anywhere in America with courses aimed at training their graduates for work in the forging industry! Gordon Walker, President of Walker Forge and Vice-President of the Drop Forging Association when I served as President, and I spoke frequently about the need to create a better bond between our industry and the institutions of higher learning in our country, particularly the engineering colleges emphasizing materials, manufacturing methods, and design. It took several years, however, before enough momentum developed toward a research and education foundation for the forging industry to make the creation of FIERF a reality.

Please Support the Forging Foundation Contribute –We invite you to partner with the Forging Foundation to develop your future workforce for research projects that connect industry with academia and provide practical knowledge for your company. All contributions to the Forging Foundation are tax deductible as charitable contributions to the extent permitted by law. The generous support of Forging Industry Association covers the Foundation’s administrative costs so 100% of your donations this year fund research and education initiatives. For more information on personal, corporate or planned gifts please contact the Forging Foundation at foundation@forging.org or 216-862-6967.

FIA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2019 7