November 2021 Volume 3

PRESIDENT'S NOTE

Cheers to a Successful Forge Fair 2021! President's Note

Association News &UpcomingMajor Events At the FIA and FIERF board meetings preceding Forge Fair in Detroit, both boards worked on their combined strategic plan, and made some important decisions: • FIA’s board voted to invest more in government relations by approving a full-time Government Relations position. The new staff person (Cleveland-based or remote) will work closely with FIA’s Public Policy Committee and FIA’s Lobby Firm. Goals include an improved consistent relationship with lawmakers and trade agencies, a contact program for state governments, and better utilization of the lobby firm’s talent. The search for this person is just underway, and you’re welcome to contact me with suggested candidates: jwarren@forging.org • The Forging Foundation (FIERF) voted to establish a new annual scholarship & internship program: the Metal Forging Engineering &Materials Sciences Scholarship. This is FIERF’s first scholarship program where a high school senior can apply and is contingent on the applicant accepting a summer internship position with a member company. The 25K annual funding plan will provide ten (10) scholarships at $2,500 each. Member companies will have access to these scholarship winners and will fund a minimum $2,500 summer internship directly with the student. Awards will be available for the Fall 2022 term on the same schedule as FIERF’s Finkl and Women in Forging scholarship programs. • Two major events coming soon! Our first annual Forging Lightweight Alloys Conference will take place February 14- 16 in Raleigh, NC – inclusive of a plant tour of Bharat Forge Aluminum USA, Inc. – a brand new plant based in Sanford, NC. And soon you will be seeing more information in IFC 2022 scheduled for June 11-13 in Downtown Chicago. We missed our turn to run IFC 2020 due to the pandemic, and we are excited at the prospect of seeing our international friends back in the United States for this important event. We hope to see you at one of these upcoming FIA events! For the full event calendar, see page 66. ■ Best regards, James R. Warren

A big ‘THANK YOU’ to all exhibitors and attendees who stuck with us and showed up for Forge Fair. Feedback has been resoundingly positive. Remarkably just slightly off our record attendance in 2019 (compared to other industry

shows), we more than made up for it with forgers who attended looking for technology, OEMS looking for forgers and some just looking for some good old-fashioned networking. Our sessions were well attended and included more offerings of basic training and information (new extended sessions on maintenance and lightweight forging) plus excellent exhibitor presentations. Our first ‘Women in Forging’ panel was a hit, along with Career Day on Thursday. Was it perfect? Nah. Detroit is a more expensive venue and not every bar and restaurant has recovered from the pandemic. But we really checked a lot of the boxes for a great show! The FIA staff was outstanding and so appreciative to see you all once again! Thanks to all who could make it. Mark your calendar for Forge Fair 2023 (May 23-25) when we return to Cleveland. What’s New with FIAMagazine? We are grateful for our partnerships with both FORGE and FORGING publications. We lean on them to help get the word out on Forge Fair and other member news. For magazine coverage of the forging industry, it’s remarkable to have three publishers in this space. FIA Magazine remains the only printed magazine in the forging industry (4 issues a year), with copies mailed to eachmember company, and a digital version to all the rest of the members’ company contacts and the industry at large. In a testament to our close partnership with FORGE magazine, we are able to share a great resource in veteran journalist and metallurgist Dean Peters. Dean has covered metal markets and forging for decades, and will now appear in each issue with a feature article highlighting our theme. I hope you enjoy his very first FIAMagazine article featuring member interviews highlighting value added services as a growth strategy, such as rough and final machining. Dean has been, and is, a great friend to FIA, andmany past issues of FORGE have run FIA research projects and lobby firm articles prior to FIAMagazine’s existence.

PUBLISHER James R. Warren jwarren@forging.org EDITOR Angela Gibian angela@forging.org Editorial Staff

Board of Directors

Perry Bennett Peter Campbell Mark Candy John Coward Robert Dimitrieff

Marcelo T. Garza JimKravec Chelsea Lantto James Romeo

DESIGN Lorean Crowder lorean@forging.org AD SALES Keri Kichurchak keri@forging.org

CHAIRMAN Douglas McIntyre VICE CHAIRMAN Dan Ulven

FIA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2021 1