November 2020 Volume 2

MEMBERS SPEAK

At the end of 2019, I was nominated and elected president of the Forging Industry Educational and Research Foundation (FIERF). It is a great honor to lead a foundation that has such noble core values, which are shared by EllwoodMaterials Technologies and me personally—especially the focus on education and research. With 2020, we expected a tougher economic year, with segments such as energy and aerospace already behind, not to mention the presidential election, which typically means we won’t have a robust economic year. However, no one could predict the enormous impact the COVID-19 pandemic would have on our industry and personal lives. The challenges we face today are different in scope and character from those we have encountered before. This is first and foremost a public health crisis, with the essential response coming from those on the front lines in hospitals, emergency services, and care facilities. Businesses have closed, workers are staying home, and we have suspended many fundamental social interactions. People have been asked to put their lives and livelihoods on hold, at significant economic and personal cost.There is not a doubt that theCOVID-19 crisis has caused considerable hardship and created enormous economic uncertainty. This economic downturn is having and will have substantial implications for the forging industry. Nevertheless, with crisis comes an excellent opportunity for reviewing our lives and processes for improvement. In FIERF, we have accepted the challenge to assist our industry during the economic downturn by a new and lean administration and by continuing our support for education and research at both the community college and university level. For the first time this year, the Charles W. Finkl scholarship crossed the border; three out of the twenty-six scholarship applications came fromUniversidad Veracruzana in Mexico. Fifteen scholarships were granted to students from all over United States and Mexico. The scholarships are seeds we plant for the future of our industry. These seeds will develop strong roots that will support the forging industry in the year to come. These seeds will be the leaders of our industry in the future. FIERF continues expanding the frontier of forging industry expertise by supporting industry-applicable research. In 2020, FIERF received three research proposals from three FIERF Magnet Schools and one additional research proposal from a different university. We know that the present time is a difficult moment to invest in the future. Still, FIERF is committed to the present and future of the forging industry, and the FIERF Board of Trustees granted four research proposals, all of them in innovative forging technologies. Moreover, we are working to bring together our industry and new universities. This year, we want to include new Members Speak By Raymundo Ordonez Olivares

Magnet Schools in our school system. In this way, we influence the curricula of additional universities to increase the interest of more students in our industry. Additionally, we continue working on creating a new e-learning system for Forging University that will support current employees in subjects such as metallurgy, forging fundamentals, safety, lubrication, heating technology, and plans to add new courses on forging product design and fundamentals of forging lightweight alloys. I want to express mymost profound gratitude to all the FIAmembers for your generous support and for the opportunity to lead FIERF in 2020-2021. For sure, we are facing a tremendous challenge this year; however, I’mwilling to serve at the best of my abilities as president of FIERF. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me if you want to share ideas on how to improve FIERF, so we can provide even more value to our member companies.

Raymundo Ordonez Olivares Ellwood Materials Technologies

Classified Ad

FIA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2020 120