Teachnolog Roadmap of American Forging

Companies (www.forging.org)
CONTENTS
A.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
B. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FORGING INDUSTRY
BACKGROUND
Role in manufacturing
Markets/Metals/Applications
BASIC FORGING PROCESSES
Impression-Die (hot, cold, warm); Open-Die; Ring Rolling
BRIEF HISTORY
Origins
Contraction of the 1980s
THE INDUSTRY TODAY
Number of Units/Plant Size/Distribution
C. A VISION FOR THE FORGING INDUSTRY OF THE FUTURE
Preferred process/World leader
Safe/clean/automated
Strategy/measure performance/customer partners
Virtual enterprise/exchange information with manufacturing chain
Global marketing strategy
Eliminate hazardous waste
Skilled workforce/Profession of choice
Profitability through productivity
D. KEY COMPETITIVE CHALLENGES
Technology development and application
find and deploy strategically significant technologies
die design/modeling
Energy and the environment
energy efficient/environmentally responsible
cooperate to make process environmental asset
pollution prevention
reduce or eliminate forging die lubrication
reduce energy consumption
induction heating/combustion advancements
waste treatment/recycling
renewable energy and environmental protection
Cooperative efforts
leverage resources/share knowledge/protect IPRs
enlist suppliers/fair compensation at each stage
information exchange/technology deployment
Unify support for Industry Vision

Competitiveness
process improvement + productivity = profitability
electronic product design/process technology
net-shape/materials utilization
decrease per-unit energy, die, and labor costs
uniform standards for electronic commerce
Education
customers
basic skills of workforce
generate political/legislative support
new information exchange/teaching technologies
new forging technologies
specific action
Markets
meet customers' future needs
changes in existing markets
globalization/realistic projections for demand
new products/markets
value-added services
competing materials/processes
emerging technologies
global market opportunities
Human resources
reestablish an improved public perception
rewards based on performance
drive education/consider trends affecting workforce
management staff/strategies
E. STRATEGIC TARGETS
Tooling, Energy, Material utilization, Productivity, Quality, Environment
F. CONCLUSION
APPENDIX A--FORGING INDUSTRY NEEDS

Forging Industry
Vision of the Future
A. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The forging industry is a key link between critical manufacturing segments--metal
suppliers (both ferrous and nonferrous) and end user industries. Forgings, which
appear in 20% of the products representing the Gross Domestic Product of the
United States, are essential to the U.S. industrial economy, to its society, and to
its national security.
In recent years the U.S. forging industry has undergone significant shrinkage
associated with intense global competition, technological changes, and

environmental and economic factors. Those companies that survived the industry
downsizing emerged stronger, better equipped to face the competitive challenges
of manufacturing today--escalating demands from customers, changing markets,
global competition, and threats from competing manufacturing processes.
The forging industry of today looks forward to the year 2020 with an awareness
of the business and technical challenges that will shape its future. The major
forces shaping the business community of the future are:
Increasing globalization of markets.
Demand for a greater return on investment and increased capital
productivity.
Customer expectations for increasingly higher levels of quality at a lower
price.
Changing skill requirements of industry employees.
In the year 2020, forging will be the cost-effective, preferred process by which
metal components of superior quality, integrity, and performance are produced for
critical and demanding applications. The U.S. forging industry will be the world
leader in materials development and utilization, process application, energy
management and efficiency, environmental responsibility, and effective utilization
of human resources. Industry-wide cooperation and collaborative efforts between
forging companies, suppliers, universities, and government laboratories, will
enable the U.S. forging industry to maximize its resources in the development
and application of advanced technology.
In order to meet the competitive challenges of the future and achieve its vision,
the forging industry must fortify itself in several critical areas: technology
development and application; energy and the environment; cooperative efforts;
competitiveness; education; markets; and human resources.
Specific areas in which technological issues need to be addressed include
materials, die design and modeling, lubrication, process modeling and
optimization software, process controls and sensors, real-time preventative
maintenance, and primary and secondary processing equipment.
The forging industry of the future will be energy efficient and will protect the
environment. Environmentally acceptable, functionally effective, and affordable
technologies are needed that integrate pollution prevention into the entire metal
forging processing system design.
Cooperative research will play a major role in returning the U.S. forging industry
to world leadership. Forging companies must leverage their limited resources by
teaming with customers, suppliers, government, academia, and other forgers to
locate the significant technologies that are being practiced or are under
development.
To achieve the industry's vision of the future, forgers must pursue dramatic
forging process breakthroughs--looking at the end product and radically changing
the existing process to produce parts that satisfy the customer, while providing a
reasonable level of profitability for all parties in the supply chain.
A multi-pronged strategy of ongoing education is key to the forging industry's
ability to attain its vision. The forging industry will take an active role in educating

current and future workers, customers, designers, government and political

forces about the process, the industry, and its technology.
Forgers must be intensely customer-focused, able to accurately predict their enduse customers' needs in the year 2020, and to anticipate and effect the changes
they must make in order to meet those needs.
Forging companies must structure their organizations to attract, reward, and
retain a top quality workforce.
To position itself for world leadership in the year 2020, the forging industry has
determined that its primary efforts should fall into five program groups: (1)
production efficiency; (2) energy efficiency; (3) recycling; (4) environmental
protection; (5) enterprise issues.
B. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FORGING INDUSTRY
BACKGROUND
Forging has unique value among manufacturing
processes. The industry is a key link between critical manufacturing segments-metal suppliers (both ferrous and nonferrous) and end user industries. Forgings
are intermediate products used widely by original equipment manufacturers in
the production of durable goods. They range in size from less than an ounce to
more than 150 tons and are found in the machines, vehicles and equipment used
to generate our industrial economy. Forgings are found in 20% of the products
representing the Gross Domestic Product of the United States. The products of
the forging industry are essential to the U.S. industrial economy, to its society,
and to its national security.
Forging imparts advantages that few processes can duplicate. The industry's
future is based on improving upon these advantages. The following are features
of forging that make the process and industry so important to designers and
users (specifiers) of components:
Forgings can be manufactured from readily available bar stock,
Almost all metals and alloys can be forged,
There are few restrictions on part size,
Forgings can produce high tolerance features,
The products are fully recyclable,
Forgings impart high strength and reliability to components
Forgings typically have relatively low life cycle costs.
Among the industries that depend on forgings are automotive and truck;
agricultural machinery and equipment; valves, fittings, and petrochemical
applications; hand tools and hardware; off-highway and railroad equipment;
general industrial equipment; ordnance and marine; and aerospace.
Forging is a cost-effective way to produce net-shape or near-net-shape
components. In some materials, it is the only way. Virtually all metals can be
forged, making an extensive range of physical and mechanical properties
available in products with the highest structural integrity.
Forgings are used in high performance, high strength, and high reliability
applications where tension, stress, load, and human safety are critical
considerations. They are also employed in a wide range of demanding

environments, including highly corrosive and extreme temperatures and

pressures.
Most of the producers of basic metal (steel, aluminum, copper, titanium, and
nickel) also produce forged product. Advances in these industries' technologies
and efficiency have a direct bearing on the forging industry's ability to compete in
the global market.
FORGING PROCESSES
During the forging process, a metal workpiece is plastically deformed by
pressing, squeezing, or hammering forces--usually at temperatures ranging from
ambient to 1,500C--so that it approaches its maximum theoretical density and
the upper limits of the material's potential strength. The properties of the worked
metal can be greatly enhanced by selecting the proper types and sequence of
operations. The controlled process of deformation that takes place imparts
exceptional metallurgical soundness and mechanical properties to the forging-structural integrity, impact strength, fracture toughness, fatigue life, and
uniformity.
The manufacture of forged products can be carried out by several basic forging
methods. The choice of method is determined by the quantity of parts to be
produced, the characteristics of the material, and the configuration to be formed.
Impression-die forging, often referred to as closed-die forging, accounts for the
bulk of commercial forging production. As the name implies, two or more dies
containing impressions of the part shape are brought together causing the
workpiece to plastically deform with the metal flow restricted by the die contours.
Most impression-die forging is performed at elevated temperatures and is known
as hot forging. The optimum hot forging temperature depends on the material
being forged. Also in the impression-die forging category are cold forging and
warm forging processes.
Cold forgings are forged at ambient temperature. Cold forged parts are generally
symmetrical and typically weigh less than 25 pounds, and because of their
extreme dimensional precision and fine surface finish they often need little or no
further machining. Production rates are very high with long die life. In warm
forging the workpiece is heated above room temperature but well below hot
forging temperatures.
Open-die forging differs from impression-die in that the metal workpiece is not
confined laterally by impression dies. The process is typically associated with
large parts, although parts weights can range from a few pounds to 150 tons The
open-die forging process progressively works the starting stock into the desired
shape, most commonly between flat-faced dies. As the stock is not contained in a
closed die, a highly skilled forge operator is required in locating and positioning
the workpiece on the die. Open die forgings require subsequent machining in
almost all cases.
Ring rolling is a very cost effective and property effective process in which
seamless rolled rings are forged in numerous cross-sectional shapes, ranging

from several inches to over 20 feet in diameter. Rings can range in weight from
one pound to more than 50,000 pounds, and are typically used in gears,
bearings, couplings, rotor spacers, and components for pressure vessels and
valves.
HISTORY
Forging is the oldest known metal working process, dating back to the days when
prehistoric peoples learned to heat sponge iron and beat it with a stone to form a
useful implement. Modern forging is a science that developed from the ancient
art practiced by the armor makers and the immortalized village blacksmith.
Sophisticated, high-powered hammers and mechanical presses now replace the
strong arm, the hammer, and the anvil, and modern metallurgical knowledge
supplements the art and skill of the craftsman in controlling the heating and
handling of the metal.
Historically, forging has relied on the skill of the operator. The manufacture of
forgings still depends on people, but advances in equipment and process control
technology are rapidly changing the nature of jobs and skills required in the forge
shop.
Technological improvements in forging processes provide substantial advantages
over other competing manufacturing processes, such as higher strength, superior
internal integrity, more consistent and higher metallurgical properties.
Sophisticated control systems and advanced processing equipment permit
forgers to produce products with greater uniformity, to extremely tight
dimensional tolerances, in time to meet customers' stringent delivery schedules,
thus adding to the inherent benefits of the forging process.
Throughout the 1980s the forging industry underwent a painful contraction due to
over capacity and pressures from world markets. The deep recession of the early
1980s shrank forging end-user markets, weakening many forging companies.
The reduced competitiveness of the U.S. forging industry was compounded by
import penetration. Between 1979 and 1990, an estimated 25% of the
commercial forging industry was forced out of business. The closing of more than
100 forging facilities caused a loss of more than 16,000 jobs.
In some cases, the industry has fragmented into smaller firms that have difficulty
investing in capital intensive up-to-date equipment, and in sustaining a strong
research and development program. In other cases it consolidated into larger
companies.
Those companies that survived the industry downsizing emerged stronger, better
equipped to face the competitive challenges of manufacturing today--escalating
demands from customers, changing markets, global competition, and
threats from competing manufacturing processes.
THE INDUSTRY TODAY
According to trade press estimates, in 1995 there were approximately 450
facilities at which the forging process is performed in the United States. More
than half of these are located in five States: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois,
Michigan, and California. Another 20% of the nation's forge shops are in Texas,
New York, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Tennessee.

Forging plants are primarily small or medium-sized companies. About 40%

employ between 20 and 99 workers, and more than 75% have less than 250
employees. Among the facilities that forge components are independent,
custom-forged part producers, original equipment manufacturers of a broad
range of products, government research laboratories, and military arsenals.
Custom producers of forgings are categorized by the Department of Commerce
according to the major end-product-based Standard Industrial Classification
(SIC) 3462 (Iron and Steel Forgings) or SIC 3463 (Nonferrous Forgings). Data
concerning other captive departments of manufacturing operations that produce
forgings for their own use are buried in many other classifications.
C. A VISION FOR THE FORGING INDUSTRY OF THE FUTURE
In the year 2020, forging will be the cost-effective, preferred process by which
metal components of superior quality, integrity, and performance are produced for
critical and demanding applications. The U.S. forging industry will be the world
leader in materials development and utilization, process application, energy
management and efficiency, environmental responsibility, and effective utilization
of human resources. Industry-wide cooperation and collaborative efforts between
forging companies, suppliers, universities, and government laboratories, will
enable the U.S. forging industry to maximize its resources in the development
and application of advanced technology.
The forge plant of the future will provide a working environment that is safe,
clean, and environmentally benign. It will be highly automated with fully
integrated processing equipment that controls processing variations and
produces high-quality products of superior consistency and dimensional control.
Forging companies of the future will have focused strategic plans that closely link
defined measures of performance and emphasize the importance of forming true
partnerships with customers and suppliers.
The forging company of the future will be a "virtual enterprise"--instantaneously
communicating with designers, customers, and suppliers utilizing a uniform
electronic standard for representing and exchanging information about a forged
product throughout its life cycle. The entire manufacturing supply chain will
benefit from the significantly compressed time-to-market, nearly nonexistent
scrap rates, and more robust processes that result.
Reinforced by a detailed and comprehensive global marketing strategy, a uniform
format for electronic data interchange, and new sales and distribution
mechanisms, the U.S. forging industry will take advantage of new, rapidly
developing geographic markets, which allow opportunity for greater sales
penetration, joint venture arrangements, and niche marketing.
Advanced processing technologies will minimize or eliminate the need for forging
lubricants in forging facilities.
Forging facilities will employ a knowledgeable and skilled workforce that is
continually well trained, educated, and recertified. Forging will be a profession of
choice and a valued source of high paying jobs in North America.
The forging process will become lower cost, more consistent, more energy
efficient and environmentally friendly. Significant advances in materials and
manufacturing technologies will ensure the U.S. forging industry's profitability

through higher productivity, shorter lead times, and superior quality near-net or
net-shape products.
D. KEY COMPETITIVE CHALLENGES
In order to meet the competitive challenges of the future and achieve its vision,
the forging industry must fortify itself in several critical areas. The key challenges
that must be addressed by the industry fall into the following categories:
Technology development and application.
Energy and the environment.
Cooperative efforts.
Competitiveness.
Education.
Markets.
Human resources.
TECHNOLOGY
The industry needs to develop and put in place programs and systems to help
find the strategically significant technologies--already in practice, that have been
developed, or are being developed--and find ways to deploy those technologies
to the industry. Cooperative industry efforts on the forge process will make the
forging industry world leaders in bulk deformation.
The forging industry must lead the drive for technological advances that benefit
many facets of the forging process, and continue to enhance the industry's
competitiveness and profitability. Specific areas in which technological issues
need to be addressed include materials, die design and modeling, lubrication,
process modeling and optimization software, process controls and sensors, realtime preventative maintenance, and primary and secondary processing
equipment. Other research and development needs for the forging industry are
outlined in Appendix A.
New lighter-weight, higher-strength, and higher-quality alloys will be
needed to compete with alternative materials and processes and make
forgings the components of choice.
Tooling material technology advancements must focus on developing
more reliable, longer-lasting die materials.
Surface modifications of the die-material interface are becoming
increasingly important.
Die design and modeling software will supplement metallurgical
improvements, adding at least an order of magnitude to the life of tooling.
Advanced rapid prototyping technology will be incorporated into forged
product design and engineering processes. This will serve customers by
speeding the time it takes to go from concept to finished part.
Advanced computer models must improve product and process efficiency
to satisfy the time, cost, and quality demands of customers in the future.
Powerful computer codes that are accessible to every forging company
are needed to quickly and accurately model material flow during the
forging process and predict forged product microstructure and mechanical
properties.

Advanced process controls and sensors must monitor all aspects of the
forging process. Forging plants of the future need to incorporate such
systems that completely integrate the manufacturing process so that each
operation will automatically sense and compensate for process variations
in other operations. Through careful design these processing systems
must incorporate great stability and flexibility.
New, more reliable and predictable equipment must be developed to suit
this unique forging process while improving material utilization and
producing the near-net and net-shape parts that satisfy the future needs of
the industry's customers.
Advanced raw materials shearing systems will optimize processing
parameters by automatically compensating for variations in raw material
thickness or cross section, producing a cut workpiece of constant volume.
Advancements in electrical resistance, electrical induction, and fossil-fuel
heating technologies will promote energy efficiency in the forging industry.
New, "smart" forging presses and other pre- and post-forging equipment
are needed to improve utilization of energy, raw materials, and labor. They
must facilitate efficient and capable of monitoring and correcting the
forging deformation process on a real-time basis for the economic
production of net- and near-net-shape forgings.
New technologically advanced processes, procedures, and devices will
permit single-minute changeover, making one-piece work flow
economically feasible for families of parts.
Advanced lubricants will yield incremental progress toward an
environmentally benign process, that increases die life, process efficiency
and improves product quality, reliability, and predictability.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
The forging industry of the future will be energy efficient and will protect the
environment. In the 21st Century, the forging plant will be a zero environmental
liability, making it a valued and responsible neighbor in its community and a
respected source of high-paying jobs for workers in the surrounding area.
To attain the vision, cooperative efforts within the forging industry must maximize
the financial resources for research projects and technology development that
focus on making the process an environmental asset.
Technologies are needed that integrate pollution prevention into the entire metal
forging processing system design. These technologies must be environmentally
acceptable, functionally effective, and affordable. The following programs will
address these issues and significantly impact the forging industry:
Eliminate aerosol emission within the plant through the use of advanced
die systems. The development of cost-effective new production methods
(such as net shape forging) will eliminate the need for post-forging
removal of surface material.
Establish a program that develops and deploys environmentally benign
lubricants, or eliminates the requirement for die lubrication altogether.

Develop new water-based synthetic die lubricants that eliminate graphite

from the forging process.
Reduce energy consumption through advanced waste heat recovery
systems that maximize furnace or induction heater efficiency. One such
step is to develop closed-loop controls that minimize the heat wasted in
the forging process when problems occur in forging systems.
Increased use of induction heating and advances in combustion
technology will significantly improve energy efficiency in forging facilities
and reduce the environmental impact of today's fossil-fuel fired process
heating systems--completely eliminating harmful products of gas
combustion.
All fluids necessary to plant operation will be recycled, and ultimately
replaced with environmentally beneficial materials.
New ways to treat waste are needed to prevent damage to the
environment. Improvements are needed in methods and technology to
minimize forging scale and recycle other process materials and gasses
that otherwise represent an environmental liability.
Renewable energy, advanced technologies for energy and resource
efficiency, cogeneration, and other waste reduction process improvements
and other cost-effective environmental protection improvements must be
developed.
COOPERATIVE EFFORTS
The forging industry must enhance its world competitiveness to ensure growth
and survival by raising the industry knowledge level to the 21st century. Forging
companies must leverage their limited resources by teaming with customers,
suppliers, government, academia, and other forgers to locate the significant
technologies that are being practiced or are under development. Formal methods
must be established to share that knowledge throughout the industry. The
mechanisms and systems through which technology is advanced and information
is shared, while protecting the intellectual property rights of those companies and
organizations that advance the technology, must be formally established.
Cooperative research will play a major role in returning the U.S. forging industry
to world leadership.
The industry must enlist the support of its vendor industries to develop new
materials, new forming and processing equipment, and new technologies that
allow forgers to meet the competitive and technological challenges of competing
processes and world-wide forging competition. Through cooperative efforts, the
value-added role of the supply chain, from raw material through final product,
must be enhanced in such a way that each stage is fairly compensated and that
the combined effect is cost-effective.
A uniform system of electronic transfer of information between the forger and its
customer, the forger and its suppliers, and among forgers must be developed.
The industry must identify and incorporate all forms or formats for information
exchange and technology deployment. This must include capitalizing on the
promise of the Internet which appears to offer the broadest application to date.

Cooperative efforts must generate broad industry-wide participation in, support

for, and implementation of the Forging Industry Vision of the Future. Industry
leaders must step forward to develop, implement, and champion the causes. The
industry must present a unified voice to educate legislators and generate support
in the political arena. Forgers must work together to establish formal programs to
educate current and prospective customers, as well as future customers
(students) to raise awareness of the benefits of forgings.
COMPETITIVENESS
To achieve the industry's vision of the future, forgers must pursue dramatic
forging process breakthroughs--looking at the end product and radically changing
the existing process to produce parts that satisfy the customer, while providing a
reasonable level of profitability for all parties in the supply chain. Taking
ownership of the end product will advance the forging industry on the path toward
being the most competitive forgers in the world.
A number of other process improvement and productivity issues that will
dramatically improve operating or production "up-time" are central to the forging
industry's ability to achieve its vision. These will directly contribute to industry
profitability and competitiveness in the 21st century.
Instantaneous electronic exchange of product design information, combined with
rapid prototyping technology, sophisticated computer software for threedimensional design, process modeling, and production of tooling are needed to
achieve the quantum leaps that significantly reduce the time it takes to go from
product design to a finished production die, and finally to a completed forging.
Implementation of the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP),
as specified by ISO 10303, will represent a significant improvement over current
electronic data interchange standards such as IGES. In addition to fixing some of
the problems with IGES and fully supporting 3-dimensional geometry, STEP
covers the full range of technical data associated with manufactured products
and is designed to allow re-use of data across the entire product development
and manufacturing life cycle. To maximize die life, design software must optimize
strain distribution, forming loads, and metal flow.
As a result of these, and other process improvements forgers will produce parts
that are closer to or at their final design configuration, eliminating the need for
costly post-forging processing steps. Improved utilization of raw materials
through production of near net shape parts will contribute significantly to
profitability by reducing waste.
It is mandatory that the forging industry institute projects that substantially
decrease per-unit energy and labor costs.
Integrated systems for electronic commerce must be developed and
implemented that incorporate uniform standards for communication about
a forged product throughout its entire life cycle.
Further developments in interactive CAD/CAM systems are needed to
allow end users' design and manufacturing engineers to work interactively
with their forging producer to design, redesign, modify, and fine-tune
complex parts and dies within a relatively short time, and at minimal cost.
EDUCATION

A multi-pronged strategy of ongoing education is key to the forging industry's

ability to attain its vision. The forging industry will take an active role in educating
current and future workers, customers, designers, government and political
forces about the process, the industry, and its technology.
Formalized programs will teach current and potential customers, as well as the
educational institutions that are training future customers, about the forging
process, its versatility, its efficiencies, and the inherent benefits of products that
are produced by its various processes.
The forging industry will enhance its competitive stature by ensuring the basic
skills of the industry's current and future workforce. To develop knowledgeable
and skilled workers, the industry will create and institute programs that drive
public and private education systems. The industry needs to continue to take
concrete action that makes forging knowledge part of the technical curriculum in
colleges and universities.
Continued efforts to develop mechanisms that generate support in the political
arena are needed to ensure that legislative and political forces recognize the
importance of the forging industry and generate legislation that is fair and
supportive of manufacturing.
The forging industry must learn to identify, evaluate, develop and utilize new
forms or formats for information exchange and dissemination between forgers
and customers, forgers and suppliers, and between forgers themselves, in order
to help reach the industry's vision for the year 2020. A broad range of emerging
teaching technologies will supplement traditional education and training forums.
Computer simulation/visualization, video conferencing, and long distance
learning programs that take advantage of the Internet will join classes, seminars,
and workshops as forging industry education tools.
To reach its vision, education within the forging industry of the future will go
beyond basic skills and application of current "best practices." Training programs
will educate forgers about technologies of the future that will advance forging
operations, processes, materials utilization, and ultimately impact industry
competitiveness and profitability.
Specific action that should be taken includes:
Develop formal training programs to educate customers.
Develop training aids (such as CD-ROM) for forge shop employees that
cover every aspect of forging.
Establish programs uniting the industry with universities, colleges, junior
colleges, and vocational schools to enhance basic skills of the future
workforce.
Create training systems to educate forging manufacturers about
technologies of the future.
MARKETS
Forgers must be intensely customer focused so that forging will become the
process of choice specified by design engineers and customers to produce costeffective, high-property components. The ability of the forging industry to
increase its competitiveness and profitability and achieve its vision of the future
will be dependent on how well it can predict its end-use customers' needs in the

year 2020, and anticipate and effect the changes forgers must make in order to
meet those needs.
Changes in existing major markets (such as automotive, aerospace, power
generation, railroad, marine, construction and off-highway, industrial, etc.) will
significantly affect customer demand and opportunity for use of forgings. The
forging industry's future success will be shaped by the kinds of products its
customers will be producing and the metal components that will be required.
The trend toward globalization of the marketplace will continue to escalate,
resulting in competitive challenges and market opportunities. As a whole, the
industry must identify and evaluate the variables and indicators that will allow it to
make realistic projections for the use of forgings in the U.S. and throughout the
world. This process must accurately identify and assess:
existing customers whose future needs will offer increased opportunities
for the forging industry, as well as those whose demand for forgings will
decrease;
new target products and markets for forgings;
new or improved services that add to the value of forgings for the
customer;
existing competitive materials (metal matrix composites, ceramics,
plastics)
existing competitive processes (powder metallurgy, casting, stamping,
fabricating)
emerging technologies, such as semi-solid forming
competitive global market opportunities.
To assure profitability in the 21st Century, the industry must develop a clear
picture of world-wide forging capacity and size of the global market. This analysis
must include an assessment of existing foreign competitors, as well as realistic
estimates of the potential competition from forging capabilities that will emerge in
third-world and other developing countries.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Human resources are among the most important keys to the future success of
forging enterprises.
Forging companies must structure their organizations to encourage, reward, and
make it desirable for engineers in all disciplines to work on their plant floors. This
must be a cultural change to an environment supportive of technology, creating
an opportunity for career advancement for technically qualified employees within
their company.
To attract and retain a top quality workforce, the industry will adopt programs and
practices that will reestablish the public perception of forging as a respected,
noble, and safe profession.
Advances in processing technology, environmental systems, communications
technology, ergonomic programs, and management strategies that reward
employees based on their contribution to company performance will make the
forging plant of the future a desirable place to work.
To reach its vision, the forging industry must establish programs and
mechanisms that drive the public and private education systems to develop

knowledgeable and skilled employees. In doing so the industry needs to

recognize and respond to societal and demographic trends that will define
acceptable and popular lifestyles of tomorrow's workforce.
The forging industry must find effective ways to identify, recruit, train, and retain
management staffs that are capable of supporting the industry's drive toward its
vision. Both workers and managers must be taught to adopt leading-edge
management strategies and technology.
E. STRATEGIC TARGETS
Through the process of analyzing the key competitive challenges that will shape
its future, the Forging Industry has identified specific goals that will have the most
profound impact on the competitiveness of the industry as a whole and on the
value of its contribution to the global manufacturing market by the year 2020.
Attaining these strategic targets will assure that the U.S. Forging Industry
becomes the world leader in customer-focused, efficient and cost effective supply
of superior quality components. These goals include:
Tooling--Increase die life by at least 10 times that of current levels.
Reduce per-part die system costs by at least 50%. Produce tooling within
24 hours from time of order.
Energy--Reduce the total forging process energy input by 20% while
cutting the per-piece energy cost by 75%.
Material utilization--Achieve a minimum overall reduction in raw material
consumption of 15%. Reduce the scrap rate (increase material utilization)
by 90%.
Productivity--Improve per-employee productivity by 50%. Reduce perpiece labor costs by 60%. Achieve average forging facility up-times of
90%.
Quality--Reduce rejected or returned work to less than 25 parts per
million. Achieve 8 sigma process control.
Environment--Generate no harmful gas combustion products; completely
eliminate aerosol emissions within forging plants; and recycle all fluids
necessary to forging operations.
F. CONCLUSION
In the year 2020, forging will be the cost-effective, preferred process by which
metal components of superior quality, integrity, and performance are produced for
critical and demanding applications. The U.S. forging industry will be the world
leader in materials development and utilization, process application, energy
management and efficiency, environmental responsibility, and effective utilization
of human resources. Industry-wide cooperation and collaborative efforts between
forging companies, suppliers, universities, and government laboratories, will
enable the U.S. forging industry to maximize its resources in the development
and application of advanced technology.
Several steps are necessary if the forging industry is to realize its vision of the
21st Century.
New knowledge must be developed and applied industry-wide through specific
research and development that focuses on bulk deformation sciences and

engineering technologies so that more cost efficient and higher performing

products and processes are developed.
Partnerships between the forging industry, federal laboratories, universities, and
vendor companies must be formed to share information on integrated
computational tools, advanced modeling, and automation techniques.
The competitiveness of the forging industry will be enhanced by leveraging the
unique technical, management, and R & D capabilities of forging companies,
vendors, educational institutions, and the government.
Impediments to collaborative pre-competitive research must be eliminated,
advocating programs that reward performance rather than specific methods of
regulatory compliance. Cost, benefits, and relative risk of cooperative ventures
must be given greater consideration.
The forging industry must respond quickly to changes in the marketplace. It
needs to create agile manufacturing plants that use advanced measurement
tools and other technologies for design, development, start-up, and that optimize
production.
The industry must pursue educational reform to create interdisciplinary
collaborative research within the academic community and encourage curricula
for undergraduate and vocational training programs that meets the changing
demands of the forging industry.
Forging companies must work with U.S. and international governments and
standards organizations to harmonize standards for nomenclature,
documentation, quality, and testing.
The industry needs to improve the efficiency of logistics by developing new
methods for working more effectively with suppliers, sponsoring efforts to shape
information technology and standards to meet the manufacturing needs of the
forging industry.
Other specific forging industry needs are outlined in Appendix A.
The forging industry has much to contribute to, and much to gain from,
participating in programs that team federal laboratories with other industries to
develop and deploy new breakthrough technologies that will advance the
competitiveness of each of the partners. The forging industry shares many
competitive issues and "cross-cutting " technological needs with other Office of
Industrial Technologies "Vision Industries." Because its needs coincide so closely
with the other industry groups, albeit from a unique perspective, many of the
programs initiated by, and on behalf of, the forging industry will have the potential
to impact positively on the other industry vision groups.
The outcome of fundamental energy research and development is one crosscutting technology area that promises to impact the forging industry. The current
energy consumption of the forging industry is significant and even incremental
improvements through technological advances can reduce costs and conserve
energy for future generations.
Advancements in computer modeling, sensors and controls, and technology for
intelligent manufacturing are other areas in which developments could be applied
to benefit the forging industry as well as several other vision industries.

The greatest potential for progress toward achieving the Forging Industry Vision
of the Future is to leverage the forging industry's limited R&D resources through
partnerships between forging companies, industry organizations (FIA and
FIERF), customers, suppliers, academic institutions, and federal laboratories.
Developing and deploying technologies that cut across several "vision" industry
groups will maximize return on American manufacturing's R&D investment.
APPENDIX A FORGING INDUSTRY NEEDS
PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY
Neural networks for process control and optimization.
Modeling and verification of complex problems in metal forging.
Rapid prototyping: tools and manufacturing.
Advanced die materials and surface modifications or coatings.
Advanced contact and non-contact sensors.
Imaging system for commercial quality control and inspection of parts.
Knowledge-based system for troubleshooting industrial equipment.
Develop design relevant material properties.
Training and education.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Reduction in heating cycles.
Energy efficient gas fueled burners for furnaces.
Fuel/combustion system optimization.
Advanced cogeneration/waste heat utilization systems.
Induction heating system with reshapable coils.
Model for increasing metal plasticity at lower forging temperatures.
RECYCLING
Energy/environmental life cycle assessment.
Develop economic methods to convert scale to usable products.
ISO 14000 compliance.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Waste stream identification.
Air emissions measurement, reduction, and control.
Water processing and reuses.
Environmental modeling of the forging process.

CONCLUSION------------By Ujjwal Rathi

After reading this teachnology road map at www.forging.org (association of
American forging companies), I think at Bharat Forge we are using 20 th century
technology. American companies are trying to wipe out its competitors by working

on new technologies. They are developing these technologies to become global

market leader. We should not get caught offguarded. We have to wake up now.
Bharat forge should have a full time research and development department that
will give suggestion in present setup to maximize efficiency and implementing
new technologies to have higher return. Company should have a framework for
next 10 years so that it is in better position to accept the challenges made by
American Forging Companies