41st Plenary Meeting in Warsaw, Poland

September 14-17, 2008

The 41st Plenary Meeting of the International Cold Forging Group (ICFG) was held from September 14 to 17, 2008 in Warsaw (Poland), hosted by Prof. Kocanda from the Department of Metal Forming of the Warsaw University of Technology. More than 50 participants (28 from industry and 30 from academia) from all over the world came to Warsaw. The meeting was chaired by Prof. A.E. Tekkaya (University of Dortmund, Germany), the chairman of the ICFG. Prof. Marciniak, who attended the meeting, has been warmly congratulated for his 90th birthday.

Memberships

The ICFG delegates welcomed Mr. Ince (NORM Fasteners, Turkey) as new corresponding member. Mr. Nicolaisen (Steertec Raufoss, Norway) becomes a full member. The membership status of Dr.Ollilainen (Ovako Bar Oy Ab, Finland) was changed to emeritus. Prof. Steinhoff (Switzerland) quit the ICFG. The ICFG now consists of 93 personal members from 23 countries over the whole world. Within the ICFG Advisory Board Dr. Groenbaek (Denmark) was replaced by Mr. Yamanaka (Japan). The General Assembly  thanked Dr. Groenbaek for his time in the Advisory Board.

Subgroup activities and publications

The subgroup “Process Simulation” prepares a document summarizing the subgroup work of the last years. Additionally, the subgroup chairmen ask for further case studies.
The subgroup “Tool Life & Tool Quality” prepares a new document dealing with surface finishing of tools. Mr, Krusic and Mr. Yamanaka replace Dr. Hinsel as chairmen. The delegates thanked Dr. Hinsel for his successful work as subgroup chairman.
Within the subgroup “Incremental Bulk Forming” modelling of the material behaviour is discussed.Within the next subgroup meetings the state of the art about joining by incremental forming will be collected.
The subgroup “Properties of Cold Forged Products” has been closed. The results of the subgroup are as follows: in industry, the designers are not aware of the advantages of cold forging. In academia, more research work is necessary. The delegates agreed that the knowledge collected in the subgroup is summarized in a document.
Thus, the ICFG has three working subgroups.

ICFG International Prizes – Paper Prize and Exchange Prize

In 2008, no ICFG International Paper Prize has been awarded. Prof. Tekkaya asked all attendees to propose good candidates for the ICFG International Prize next year. Deadline for application will be on May 1st, 2009.

In 2009, the ICFG International Exchange Prize will be awarded again. This prize is established in order to support the understanding of young researchers of the importance of cold and warm forging production as it is carried out by world leading companies and also to give young researchers an understanding of social and cultural differences and challenges in overseas countries. The technical trip will cover  visits to a cold/ warm/ hot  forging companies as well as academic institutions in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Deadline for application will be on May 1st, 2009.

For both prizes, the call for candidates will be online at January 2009.

Next Plenary Meeting

The coming Plenary Meeting 2009 will be held in Shanghai, P.R. China and will take place from September 20th to 23rd. The meeting will be organized by the ICFG member Prof. Ruan from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The preliminary program was presented by Dr. Zhao. More detailed information will be published on the ICFG website