APPLIED PROCESS’S POSTHAVEN

Dr. Kathy Hayrynen speaks at the Minnesota Chapter of ASM International

On May 15 AP’s own Dr. Kathy Hayrynen will speak at the Minnesota Chapter of ASM International.  Holy cow, why have you not already registered? You can check out the chapter website here.

Casting Conversion –Toro Dingo

Here is a well-documented casting conversion. The Smith Foundry-Toro Dingo Drive Wheel was a big success story with lots of attractive metrics. The case study can be accessed on the site of the Steel Founders Society, here, even though it is indeed an Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) conversion.

Some of those metrics look like this (from the case study):

Cost Savings -- a 55% reduction in production cost compared to the original assembly design based on part cost savings and reduced assembly cost.

Weight Savings -- a 15% weight reduction compared to the original design in steel.

Performance Benefits - Superior wear, durability and appearance compared to the assembly design.

Please do check out and read then entire case study. It is great work by Smith Foundry of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and great work by Toro as well.

Meeting in Mankato this week

AFS Division 14 had a meeting in Mankato, Minnesota this week at Dotson Iron Castings. They were excellent hosts, and that is a special foundry. AFS Division 14 has ambitious goals and also a solid core of members to tackle the work involved.

Bloomberg Businessweek and Slimers

For the uninitiated, a “slimer” is a metallurgist employed in extractive metallurgy, meaning they are removing metals from ores instead other pursuits like casting, forging, welding, rolling, or refining of metals. Bloomberg Businessweek has an article this week on proposed extractive activity in Minnesota that should be of interest to slimers. This blog is not the place to discuss the bulk of that article, but I was intrigued by the chart below showing the general increase in certain alloy prices. If you are an iron casting designer the takeaway is to optimize your design to minimize the need for copper and nickel. If you are paying attention to the platinum line, then you clearly did not major in metallurgical engineering.

Carbidic Austempered Ductile Iron in the news

This news piece at the AFS website states that Brandon Wervey, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, “won first place in the AFS/Foundry Educational Foundation (FEF) Student Technology Scholarship competition with his paper, ‘Carbidic Austempered Ductile Iron’.”  Please follow the link to read more about it.  The International Journal of Metalcasting (IJMC) is a prestigious place indeed to be published. Congratulations to Brandon!  I can’t wait to read the paper!

ASM Materials Camp
There is a lot of talk about a lack of metallurgical talent (and that’s just in my house!).  With this in mind, ASM Materials Camps are a worthwhile exercise.  You can read more about them here.

Yes, he was a Metallurgist

I was shocked … SHOCKED! … to learn that onetime USSR bigshot Leonid Brezhnev was a metallurgist.  Oh it’s true; … I saw it on Wikipedia!  In fact, he was a ferrous metallurgist, having “graduated from the Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Technicum in 1935 … and became a metallurgical engineer in the iron and steel industries.” Clearly he found politics more rewarding than metallurgy, but his life might have been different if he had learned more about bainite. I know that my life and the lives of many other comrades have been improved by the properties of austempered steel.

Vasko’s Reading Pick

It is too soon to make a book recommendation, but currently I am reading Jared Diamond’s “The World Until Yesterday”.  This is a social sciences book that asks “what can we learn from traditional societies”.  It discusses some neat topics, like trade in pre-modern markets.  We all know about comparative advantage, such as people in Kansas producing and selling wheat and exchanging it (eventually) with people in Guatemala who produce and sell coffee.  But it is interesting how Diamond points out that in pre-modern markets “they also do much trading of objects equally available to either party, and they do that trading to maintain relationships for political and social reasons.”  I have seen something similar, but not the same, in business-to-business markets.  Some purchasing decisions are made as a “tip of the hat” or a sign of respect or simply to maintain cordial relations, even when the numbers do not add up.  The value of such a decision is difficult to quantify, but these purchases do indeed get made. 

The rail industry tends to move at its own pace in terms of innovation.  After all, trains have been running with technology of a certain vintage for a long time.

The good people at Pennsy Corporation move at a different pace entirely. They never sit still.  Check out this AWESOME video of an austempered ductile iron (ADI) rerailer being tested with a 200 ton 6-axle locomotive. The old steel design was reconfigured for ADI with some impressive results in performance and lightweighting.

The video can be watched here:

Also, the ADI rerailer can be seen in the photo below.  Be the first kid on your block to have a new ADI rerailer!  Makes a great gift!

In this space I hope to highlight examples of casting conversions, especially those in Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI). These examples will be those that are publicly available as I am not in the habit of divulging trade secrets. If you have an example you want to share, let me know - you know where to find me.

The good people at Dotson Iron Castings are experts at casting conversions.  They do a lot of design work to help customers to create more lightweight and cost-effective solutions.  They executed a Shank Pivot Mount conversion from a weldment with great success.  You can read about it here.  This particular casting won the 2012 Metalcasting Design and Purchasing Award for Best in Class Design.

Great work done there!  I hope to present more such cases in this space in the weeks to come.

If you are new to metalcasting or casting design, fear not! There is much to learn but the Cast Metals industry has never been more prepared to teach you.

The American Foundry Society's Cast Metals Institute has revamped many classes. The Institute is better than ever. You can learn more about their work by clicking here.

Waupaca Foundry offers their popular Foundry 101 classes several times per year. You can learn more by checking here. Great people at Waupaca!

Applied Process has two sessions of AP University planned, and both are completely filled. It's bigger than the Beatles. We are working on adding more sessions.

If someone knows of other such training, please let me know and I will share that info here. There is no truth to the rumor that only my relatives read this blog.

Until next time, here is a photo of ductile iron being poured at Joyworks as part of AP University last January

Suppliers and R&D

We have the very finest R&D Department at Applied Process, so this editorial in Automotive News from February is no surprise.  Keith Crane writes “Suppliers from around the world are creating the innovations and inventions that automakers integrate into tomorrow's models. Suppliers also seem to be offering exclusivity for a while to brands that adopt their innovations first. … The r&d has shifted dramatically from auto manufacturers to suppliers. … For suppliers, being able to present their latest and most exciting ideas in an atmosphere of cooperation and security is an essential part of that new relationship.”

This is very true – there has to be a level of trust when a supplier and customer collaborate on a new innovation.  Maintaining that trust helps all parties move forward.  Betraying that trust results in loss of customer value and tattered reputations.   Do please read the whole thing.

Editorial in the Economist (April 26 – May 2 Issue)

Engineering and Economics are similar disciplines in that they both assess ways to optimize results under a given set of boundary conditions.  Engineers find optimal solutions and put them to work.  They seldom make the mistake of advocating a moral dimension to the project because the optimized solution is by definition the most efficient allocation of resources.  If the boundary conditions change, then OK … the engineer will go back to the drawing board and find a new solution.  On the other hand, economists get in trouble when they stop saying what is happening and start saying what should happen. 

The latest issue of the Economist offers a case in point.  The lead editorial takes on aging world demographics, stating “… Wealthy old people will accumulate more savings, which will weaken demand. Inequality will increase and a growing share of wealth will eventually be transferred to the next generation via inheritance … One likely response is to impose higher inheritance taxes. So long as they replaced less-fair taxes, that might make sense.”

Where to begin?  Alas, I’ll just back to work on another casting conversion.  That way I can better serve humanity until they move the boundary conditions again.

This is awesome

I hate it when I like something in the Times.  But this is awesome.

Vasko’s Reading Pick

Attention technical salespeople … put down the golf clubs and read the book “Value Merchants: Demonstrating and Documenting Superior Value in Business Markets”.  Dr. Anderson and his colleagues will show how to properly demonstrate what your market offering is really worth.  Whatever it is worth, you should know it.  The methods here will uplift you and your customers.  Then you can go golfing.

It’s Competitive Out There

Applied Process is deeply involved in the business of casting conversions, especially ADI conversions, but we are not actually a production foundry.  This means we have an opportunity to discuss one aspect of the process from a more unbiased point of view.

When a new part design is nearly complete the OEM begins to seek a foundry source for that casting.  All of the foundries I know fully understand that it is a competitive marketplace out there.  That said, having done this many times, the OEM is best served by working with one or two foundries from the beginning of the process.

You might say, “That sounds an awful lot like the foundries are seeking to limit competition so they can charge high prices to OEM’s.  What kind of an economist are you?”  I would respond that when you see the whole picture this idea will crumble.   Let’s compare two approaches.

In Approach #1, the OEM finalizes a design and sends it out to 20 casting sources, domestic and abroad.   Such wide competition is sure to drive down the price to some level we will call “X”.  There is a problem with this, however.  The casting design process offers many opportunities for cost-cutting that are not readily apparent to the designer or the buyer.  This happens even with large, sophisticated OEM’s.

In Approach #2, the OEM works with one or two trusted foundries from the beginning of the design stage.  The foundry offers design input to reduce the cost of manufacturing the part to make the casting process more competitive with other manufacturing methods.  This might include adjusting a parting line to reduce finishing costs or making another change that eliminates a core or making another change that allows two parts on a pattern instead of one or reducing some draft to minimize machining costs.  These adjustments represent massive costs savings compared to the “20 quotes and a cloud of dust” approach.  The resultant price “Y” will surely be lower than “X”.

The foundries I know who do conversions are always willing to jump in and execute those changes to generate a lower total price for the OEM and better sales for themselves.  If the foundry source is unwilling or unable to do this, then the OEM needs new foundry sources.  If the OEM wants to exploit a foundry’s technical input and then proceed with “20 quotes and a cloud of dust”, then they will very quickly evaporate their best sources of casting design input and they will pay more in the end.

Casting Conversion Process

Applied Process empaneled the company’s first-ever Customer Advisory Board in 2012.  One of the key takeaways was that the casting conversion process can be overwhelming to engineers who have not done it before.  This is surely true.  When you go from a weldment to a casting you are talking about change, and change is often not comfortable!

With that said, it is kind of like any new skill … once you do it the first time it gets way easier the second time.  One company I know has gone from two part numbers to about 25 in about four years.  Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) has allowed them to cut costs, to cut lead times, and to lightweight multiple parts.  Education surely helps.

The takeaway is to listen to your customers … and finish that first conversion!

Get your license!

The role of the engineer is to optimize the use of the earth’s resources in service to mankind.  This is no small responsibility.  Professional Engineering licensure is a system by which the engineering profession is elevated.  If you are an engineer, and you are not pursuing PE licensure, please consider doing so.   It is good for your employer and good for you, too.  BTW, all of you college seniors … please put down that pizza and talk to your advisor about this sooner instead of later.  Thanks!

Buzzfeed Metallurgy Alert

This Buzzfeed article asks “Which Indestructible Metal Is Actually The Strongest?”  If you read the article you will see that Austempered Ductile Iron was not listed anywhere, and this omission makes me question the integrity of the authors.  After all, they included such pretenders as Mithril and Vibranium, but they left out ADI.  Some of the winners were even nonferrous!  Lastly, I heard via the grapevine that Wonder Woman’s Bracelets of Victory are actually only Amazonium-plated (tell the truth, Diana!).  I demand a recount!

Vasko’s Reading Pick

I spend a lot of time with engineers, and we often talk about standard deviations and bell curves and so on.  These are useful concepts.  However, there is a book that might shake you up.  The second edition of The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb will make you question some of your more closely held notions.  The blurb on Amazon says “A black swan is an event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences.”   Just because something is difficult to predict does not mean it cannot happen … and when it does we can look pretty foolish indeed.  I suggest you read this and pass it on to a friend.

Lately …

The photo shown here is from last week at the AFS Metalcasting Congress. It features AP’s Kathy Hayrynen and everyone’s favorite metallurgist, Gene Muratore. Dr. Hayrynen delivered the Hoyt Memorial Lecture and Gene was awarded the Pangborn Gold Medal at the Congress. For those readers who are not in the metal casting industry, please know that these are major, career-capping honors. Both are richly, richly deserved.

Austempered Steel … metallurgical fun for your Friday

This will be fun. One reason you might austemper your steel instead of performing quench & temper is warpage. The austempered steel cycle does not involve crossing the martensite start line, so the martensitic transformation never occurs. You get a body centered cubic structure instead of body centered tetragonal. This means the parts have less warpage as shown in this photo of prototype 1075 steel bottle openers run at Applied Process. The parts on the left were austempered and have the same hardness as the martensitic parts on the right. Notice how the austempered parts remain flat. John Keough discusses this at the Bainite is Better group on LinkedIn, which you should check out.

Now, deep in Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands another demonstration was done. A trained professional shot this austempered steel bottle opener (HRc55) from 10 yards with a .38 Special handgun. The steel did not even bend. According to what info we had available the bullet (158 grains) was travelling at 754 ft./sec. Do not try this at home. The takeaway is that impact resistance is another reason to austemper your steel. PS – no deer were harmed (BELIEVE ME) in this demonstration.

Vasko Reading Pick

Bloomberg Businessweek has some interesting reads.  I like this one from April 14: “You can make really great olive oil anywhere … How the oil is made is much more important than where.”  These are very American sentiments, and they represent something very good.  Specifically, you can do something excellent and be recognized, regardless of where you come from.  Please do read the article, and then go do something awesome yourself.

In the Heartland

Buckeye Dave makes agricultural equipment.  Here is his take on the 2014 forecast for such equipment: “the 2014 forecast was for a slowdown (compared to 2013) but the customers haven’t let us do that.”  That’s a good thing, and it reflects well on the state of America’s farm economy despite some tremors from Washington.

Vasko Popovski, PE, is Director of Sales and Marketing for Applied Process Inc.  Vasko is a Metallurgical Engineer as well as an Economist.  The views expressed here are his own and not necessarily those of Applied Process.  Vasko welcomes questions, comments, and corrections.  More than anything he welcomes guidance on how to better land rainbow trout in Pennsylvania.

Greetings!  This is my inaugural entry in this blog where I will discuss goings-on in American manufacturing, with a focus on component design and metalcasting.  Some economic ideas will be thrown in to add some context.  Some occasional marketing ideas might pop up. I will even cite actual numbers now and then.  Happy reading!

Lately …

I attended the AFS Metalcasting Congress last week in Schaumburg, IL.  Attendees were in good spirits, and the North American metalcasting industry is in fine shape.  There are a lot of reasons why, but I think the main cause gets back to fundamentals: the metalcasting process allows designers to put material where they want it and no material where they do not want it.  More and more designers are learning this.  It is a simple matter of allocation of scarce resources in designing a part.   

An alternative manufacturing method would be welding of steel, which has its own pros and cons.  However, anecdotal evidence from the field tells me that welders are in short supply.  Multiple manufacturers in the US and Canada have told me that there are “no qualified welders available at any price”, with many of them already working as part of the domestic oil and gas surge.  Further, a recent search of the Monster job board found 500+ openings for welders.  This factor limits the growth of some companies in the US/Canadian manufacturing sector in that there is simply a shortage of people to make the things their customers demand.

So what are the takeaways?  Well, some of you should run, not walk, to welding school, where you will learn a skilled trade that is in demand.  The rest of you should design and buy your components, when appropriate, as metal castings.  

Vasko’s Reading Pick

David P. Goldman is a visionary writer.  He often sees and writes about things that nobody else wants to acknowledge.  Goldman’s stuff is not always for the hyper-sensitive (this is a non-political blog).  He often writes about macro-concepts that impact US manufacturing.  For example, food prices are going up due to short term variables like weather, but the macro-trend is associated with longer-term factors like a rising middle class in Asia.  What does that mean to American manufacturers?  It means many American farmers will get high prices for their crops and in turn they will buy equipment … which means more work for metal casters … we hope.

Bait and Switch

We ate at (and closed) a very nice seafood place this past week in Chicago while attending the AFS Metalcasting Congress.  A good time was had by all, and I will not embarrass the attendees by listing them all here (hi, Matt!).  Anyway, all of that seafood prompted me to remember that the original name of the “Chilean Sea Bass” is “Patagonian Toothfish”.  Now, this is a hideous creature, but tasty.  The takeaway here is that the name change makes the fish much more marketable but adds no other value to what is on your plate.  I find the idea strangely compelling and repugnant, all at the same time.

Vasko Popovski, PE, is Director of Sales and Marketing for Applied Process Inc.  Vasko is a Metallurgical Engineer as well as an Economist.  The views expressed here are his own and not necessarily those of Applied Process.  Vasko welcomes questions, comments, and corrections.  More than anything he welcomes guidance on how to better land rainbow trout in Pennsylvania.