The delegates reported on national activities during the last year. The following subgroup activities were reported: The Cold Forging Tribology subgroup, chaired by Prof. Niels Bay, Denmark, has successfully finished its work by publishing its second document "Lubrication Aspects in Cold Forging of Aluminium and Aluminium Alloys" in WIRE 1/96. A new subgroup on Cold Forging of Aluminium Alloys was launched and had its first meeting in Györ, the elected chairman is Prof. Niels Bay. The subgroup on Materials and Defects, chaired by Dr. Vesa Ollilainen, Finland, has submitted its document "Defects in Cold Forging" for review. It is expected to be published in WIRE in 1997. The subgroup on Tool Life and Tool Quality defined the outline of a document on Tool Life in Cold Forging and is in the phase of composing the contents. The subgroup on Warm Forging, chaired by Prof. Taylor Dean, UK, has continued with defining its working area.
At the technical sessions seven full and six short presentations were presented on the following subjects: formability of hypereutectoidal Aluminium alloys, lubricants for cold forging of Aluminium, friction in double cup extrusion, reliability of cold forging tools, fatigue of PVD and CVD coated tool steel, environmental and educational issues, process anyalysis of combined cold extrusion of non-axisymmetric shapes, inverse methods and optimisation techniques, 3D process simulation by Eulerian method, precision forging with axially driven container, heat transfer coefficient in die billet zone, closed die forging.
In connection with the Plenary Meeting, a technical visit to the company RABA, Györ, was arranged.
The ICFG held its 30th Plenary Meeting from September 7 to 10, 1997, in s'Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. The meeting was attended by 40 members and 17 guests from Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the USA.
Three new full members from Germany, Hungary and Spain as well as two new corresponding members from Hungary and the Netherlands were elected. In addition, the status of honorary membership was introduced at the Plenary Meeting and awarded to Prof. H. Kudo, Japan, Prof. K. Lange, Germany, Dr. H.Ll.D. Pugh and Dr. T.M.B. Sessions, both from the UK, for their outstanding activities and devotion to the ICFG from its beginning in 1967.
According to this, the present status of membership is: member countries 21, full members 46, corresponding members 7, emeritus members 4, honorary members 4. Since 1996, the chairman is Prof. Manfred Geiger, Germany, the technical secretary is Prof. Laszlo Cser, Hungary.
Currently four active ICFG subgroups are preparing guidelines and documents covering the following subjects: "Materials and Defects" (Chairman: Dr. V. Ollilainen, Finland), "Warm Forging" (Prof. T. Dean, UK), "Tool Life and Tool Quality" (Prof. L. Cser, Hungary), "Cold Forging of Aluminium" (Prof. N. Bay, Denmark).
At the technical sessions seven full and nine short presentations were presented on the following subjects: TOOL LIFE (analysis of tool life of cold forging dies and its improvement by high stiffness strip-wound containers); STEELS (IMAFORM high strength steel); LUBRICANTS (evaluation of cold and warm forging lubricants); WARM FORGING (ausforming process); SIMULATION (current state and developments, simulation of forming of microparts); PROCESS DESIGN (rotary swaging, precision forging of helical gear, CAOD techniques, rotary forging, punching of small holes).
Technical visits gave insight into well-known Dutch companies: AMEFO in Zwolle showed the cold forging and machining of Aluminium houses for airbags. The NEDSCHROEF plant in Helmond produces fasteners fulfilling the special demands of automobile industry. The PHILIPS centre for manufacturing technology in Eindhoven presented the precision forging of maskpins for TV sets.
organised by the Department of Production Engineering,
Chalmers Universityof Technology
The 31st ICFG Plenary Meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, from September 6-9, 1998, was organised by the Department of Production Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, headed by Prof. Ralph Crafoord. 40 members and 11 guests from 18 countries attended the meeting which was chaired by Prof. Manfred Geiger, Germany.
Seven new full members from France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Turkey as well as four new corresponding members from Japan, Sweden, Turkey and the USA were elected. Three full members from Australia, Germany and Norway were appointed as emeritus members because of retirement in their jobs. According to this, the present status of membership is: member countries 22, full members 50, corresponding members 9, emeritus members 7, honorary members 4.
In 1998, the group has introduced the annual ICFG International Prize which is to be conferred upon young R&D workers of outstanding merit who are authors of original R&D meeting the objectives of ICFG. On the occasion of the 31st Plenary Meeting, the prize was awarded to Dipl.-Ing. Christian Hinsel, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, to honour his paper presentation "Advanced surface and coating technologies for improved tool life in cold forging" and his research activities in cold forging.
Based on the subgroup activities, the following ICFG documents are almost finished and will be published in 1999: "Defects in cold forging", "Cold forging steels", "Economical and technological aspects of tool life and tool quality in cold forging", "Warm forging". Furthermore, the document "Cold forging of Aluminium" is under preparation.
At the technical sessions nine full and eight short presentations were presented on the following subjects: surface technologies (coating, surface texturing, quality control of surface treatment), tribology (testing of lubricants), steels (effects on cold forgeability), machining of near-net shaped cold forged parts, numerical simulation of forging processes, and process optimization (equalization of extruded lengths in multi-hole extrusion, ballizing process, cold forging of helical gear utilizing dividing flows). The technical sessions were enhanced by technical visits to two well-known Swedish companies, the truck plant of Volvo and the headquarter of the bearing producer SKF.
The next ICFG Plenary Meeting will take place in the period September 12-15, 1999. It will be organised by the Chair of Manufacturing Technology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, headed by Prof. Karl Kuzman.
Regularly updated information about ICFG including links to its members is provided by the official ICFG homepage http://www.lft.uni-erlangen.de/SEITEN/ICFG/index.html.
The 32nd ICFG Plenary Meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from September 12-15, 1999, was hosted by Dr. Karl Kuzman, Professor at the University of Ljubljana and head of the TECOS Slovenian Tool and Die Development Centre. 34 members and 15 guests from 19 countries attended the meeting which was chaired by Prof. Manfred Geiger, Germany.
After two periods of office, the ICFG chairman Prof. M. Geiger and the Technical Secretary Prof. L. Cser are succeeded by Dr. Jens Grønbæk, Danfoss Strecon, and Dr. Viggo Maegaard, Danfoss, both from Denmark. Three new full members from Germany, Japan and Switzerland as well as one new corresponding member from Australia were elected. Three full members from Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were appointed as emeritus members because of retirement in their jobs. According to this, the present status of membership is: member countries 23, full members 50, corresponding members 10, emeritus members 10, honorary members 4.
Based on the subgroup activities, the following ICFG documents are almost
finished and will be published in the beginning of the year 2000: "Steels
for Cold Forging", "Economical and technological aspects of tool life and
tool quality in cold forging", "Warm forging". Furthermore, the document
"Cold forging of Aluminium" is under preparation.
At the technical sessions ten full and five short presentations were presented on the following subjects: process developments (thixoforging, new method for cold forming of rotating parts, cold forging applications in automotive industry), numerical analysis (process simulation, data mining), tool life (die life in warm forging, backtracking approach to the origin of tool life scatter), tribology and machine tools. The technical sessions were enhanced by technical visits to the Slovenian companies ISKRA Avtoelektrika, Domel Zelezniki and Kolektor Idrija.
The next ICFG Plenary Meeting will be hosted in the period September 10-12, 1999 by Prof. M. Geiger at the Chair of Manufacturing Technology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Thus ICFG participants may directly join the subsequent 10th International Cold Forging Congress ICFC in Stuttgart-Fellbach on September 13-15.
Programme Overview of the 32nd meeting.
The 33rd ICFG Plenary Meeting in Nuremberg, Germany, from September 10-12, 2000, was hosted by Prof. Manfred Geiger from the Chair of Manufacturing Technology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. 35 members and 14 guests from 18 countries attended the meeting which was chaired by Dr. Jens Grønbæk from Danfoss Strecon, Denmark.
Due to job changes of Dr. V. Maegaard, Prof. Kuzman, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia succeed him in his position as the Technical Secretary. The temporary Secretary's office Erlangen is run by Mr. N. Tiesler, who succeeded Dr. Ch. Hinsel. Three new full members from China, Germany, and Italy as well as three new corresponding members from Germany and the United States were elected. According to this, the present status of membership is: member countries 25, full members 53, corresponding members 11, emeritus members 8, honorary members 4.
Based on the subgroup activities, the following ICFG documents were accepted for publishing: “Warm forging” and “Steels for cold forgi Almost finished are: "Tool life and tool quality in cold forging" and "Cold forging of Aluminium".
During the meeting three special contributions were presented:
Osakada – Precision Forging in the Future, Meidert – Report on JSTP
seminar for young researchers, Tekkaya – How can the ICFG best utilize
the Internet
The participants of the meeting expressed their thanks to the Nichidai Corp. for their Nichidai International Exchange Programme which enables two young researchers from Germany (Chair of Prof. Geiger) and Slovenia (Chair of Prof. Kuzman) to spent three months working at Nichidai and visiting some japanese industrial and scientific institutions.
After the meeting many of participants joined the subsequent 10th International Cold Forging Congress ICFC in Stuttgart-Fellbach on September 13-15.
The 34th ICFG Plenary Meeting will be held in Japan in Tsukuba from 23 to 28 Sept. 2001 with visits to some industrial companies in Narita area. The host of the meeting will be Prof. Akira Azushima.
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MEETINGS