Metalforming Matters

Guest Blogger: Kathy Kiernan Senior Vice President & Managing Partner, APPI Energy Retail electricity prices are largely driven by natural gas prices . Even though your system operator (PJM, ERCOT, MISO, NEPOOL) is procuring power from a variety of sources—hydroelectric, wind, solar, nuclear, coal, gas—the way system operators pay generating plants is based on the last fuel used to meet demand, which is almost always natural gas. Therefore, the amount you pay per kWh is determined primarily by the current price of natural gas in your region.  Retail electricity prices tend to follow trends in natural gas prices. Gas prices, however, are significantly more volatile than electricity prices. For example, when we see gas prices fluctuate by as much as 70% in a single month, corresponding electricity prices will generally move in the same direction, but by only around 10%. The change in electricity prices will also typically lag behind gas prices by a couple of weeks...

PMA President, Bill Gaskin, shares his memories and experiences as PMA celebrates our 75 th anniversary. Q: How long have you been at PMA? A: I am closing in on 40 years. Jon Jenson, who was president of American Metal Stamping Association (AMSA) from December 1975 through August 2000, hired me in February 1977 with an official “start date” of March 1, 1977.  (See below for more on this)  Q: What is your current role? Have you held any other positions at PMA previously? A: My current role includes being President of three separate, but related entities: (1) Precision Metalforming Association, which is a 501 (c) (6) not-for-profit trade association (2) PMA Educational Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit charitable organization supporting training and education·         (3) PMA Services, Inc., a for-profit company (owned equally by PMA and PMAEF) engaged primarily in publishing and management of other associations, such as Wo...

Guest Blogger: Pat Saul General Manager, RPS Quality Solutions Inc Today the Die Industry faces multiple challenges. Die shops encounter high demands in both cost and time and must deal with continuously shifting technologies.   New Materials, Drastic Designs and Late Form Changes, combined with Aggressive Prototype and Quotation Timelines -- all of these create significant issues for Sheet Metal Die Design and Development which are always on the critical path of automotive vehicle programs. Die Suppliers often contend with pressure to deliver Die Designs and Builds to very tightly compressed timelines.  There are frequently delays in receiving quote packages and product data from the customer, while required delivery dates do not change, which results in reduced turnaround times. Die Suppliers have had to find creative and effective ways to adjust and be successful delivering on time quality dies that produce quality parts.  Pat Saul, General Manager...

Guest Blog: Mike Justice President, UPA Technology Forming good parts is a demanding and difficult task, mainly because of the many variables that can interrupt the process. Stamping problems can be due to several areas including problems with dies, substrates, press issues as well as incorrect amounts of lubricant. Quickly evaluating and eliminating the possible causes of stamping problems speeds up correction at the press where downtime often is measured by minutes/month. Quantifying lubricant thickness quickly and accurately can determine or eliminate whether lubricant issues are the cause of forming issues. But, measuring lubricant thickness has not been easy and has been the cause of much discussion and dissension.   Stampers, processors and mills are routinely tasked with accurately measuring oil-films ranging between 7-120 Milligrams per square foot (mg/ft2) in order to meet specification for making good parts.  As a thickness instead of a weight, this equat...

Guest Blog: Laurie Harbour President and CEO, Harbour Results, Inc.  In 2016 the U.S. manufacturing industry was relatively stable with overall production slightly up from previous years. Specifically, the automotive tool and die industry was predicted to be busy with forecasted tooling spend on the rise. However, taking a closer look, the year proved to be a bit more challenging. Data collected through the Harbour Results’ Harbour IQ pulse survey (a business intelligence tool for performance, financial, operational, trend and market data), which was completed by more than 100 tool shops globally in the second quarter of 2016, has shown that capacity reached a low of 81 percent among die shops in late 2015 and early 2016, but was expected to rebound to 78 and 86 percent respectively by year end. So what caused the slow down? Program delays —on average, just over 20 percent of vehicle launches were delayed in 2015 and 2016.  Work on hold —in early 2016, 18 percent...

A Metal Processor's Best Friend Guest Blogger: Mike Tieri Director of Sales & Marketing, Chemcoaters Scrap…What a problem! Are you having trouble with higher scrap loss than you can understand or more importantly tolerate? It could be the metal but perhaps it’s a problem in the processing itself. Have you looked at dry-film lubricants (DFLs)? If it’s been a while, you should look again. Largely used by the automotive and appliance industries, you surely know that if it didn’t provide a tremendous benefit, they would never add that cost into the process. When I asked why, I was shown all of the benefits it provided. CASE: One company monitored costs of using oil against DFL. One item evaluated was worker gloves. They said that bringing material in with oil showed that workers wore 5.6 pairs of gloves per week. By going to DFL, the workers’ gloves didn’t get saturated and usage was dropped to 2.4 pairs of gloves per week. It might not seem to matter much but on 1...

With all the talk in the last year of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and how to best prepare your company for these new innovative technologies, the major question on most manufacturers’ minds is, “But does it work and will it work for me?” Plex’s 2016 State of Manufacturing Technology Report aimed to explain just that, with a focus on cloud computing and its effectiveness on the shopfloor.  Here are some of the most significant results from their survey of nearly 200 manufacturers who are using IIoT in some capacity. Cloud computing increases the ability to manage fluctuating business needs.  With cloud computing, manufacturers are able to connect the plant floor with the C-Suite, giving everyone access to either identical versions or tailored versions of real-time data. Of the respondents who use cloud technology, 98% reported that connectivity of machines, systems, suppliers, and clients delivers value to their business today 64% found they were better...