42nd Plenary Meeting in Shanghai, China
September 20-24, 2009
The 42nd Plenary Meeting of the International Cold Forging Group (ICFG) was held from September 20 to 24, 2009 in Shanghai (China), hosted by Prof. Ruan from National Engineering Research Center of Die & Mold CAD of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. More than 82 participants (38 from industry and 44 from academia) from 12 countries came to Shanghai. The meeting was chaired by Prof. A.E. Tekkaya (University of Dortmund, Germany), the chairman of the ICFG. In memory of one of the founder and Honorary member of ICFG, Prof. Kurt Lange, who passed away at August 1st, 2009 at the age of 89, a memorial session was organized .
Memberships
The ICFG delegates welcomed Mr. Haridass (India), Mr. Kawahara (Japan), Prof. Merklein (Germany), Mr. Schwarzenbeck (Brazil) and Prof. Yoshida (Japan) as new corresponding member. Prof. Zhao (China) becomes a full member. The membership status of Prof. Osakada (Japan) was changed to emeritus. Mr. Nath (USA) quit the ICFG by his own request. The ICFG now consists of 95 personal members from 25 countries over the whole world. Within the ICFG Advisory Board Prof. Kuzman (Slovenia) ended his service time as vice-chairman and member of the Advisory Board. The General Assembly thanked Prof. Kuzman for his time in the Advisory Board. Dr. Hänsel (Liechtenstein) succeeded as vice-chairman. Prof. Zhao (China) has been welcomed as new member of the Advisory Board.
Subgroup activities and publications
The subgroup “Process Simulation” prepares a document “Preparation and assessment of FE-simulations of cold forging operations – collection of case studies”. Additionally, a joint workshop together with teh subgroup “Tool Life & Tool Quality” has been organized dealing with tool life simulation, the prediction and improvement of tool life by using CAE and its methodology.
The subgroup “Tool Life & Tool Quality” prepares a new document dealing with surface finishing of tools.
Within the subgroup “Incremental Bulk Forming” a document is prepared including a benchmark on the simulation of a rotary swaging process. As this document is nearly finished, the subgroup has been closed after the Plenary Meeting. In order to ensure that the ICFG will meet the challenges of the future, a new subgroup named “Cold Forging 2050” has been set up for discussing about the future and the challenges of cold forging against the background of current trends like the development of the electric car. The chairman is Prof. Osakada (Japan). This subgroup is co-chaired by Prof. M. Geiger (Germany).
Thus, the ICFG has three working subgroups.
ICFG International Prizes – Paper Prize and Exchange Prize
In 2009, the ICFG International Paper Prize 2009 has been awarded to Mr. S. Weidel (Germany) for his paper “Basic Study on the Influence of Liquid Lubricant on Contact State in Cold Forging Processes”. Prof. Tekkaya asked all attendees to propose good candidates for the ICFG International Prize next year. Deadline for application will be on May 1st, 2010. In 2010, 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, 2010. For both prizes, the call for candidates will be online at January 2010.
Next Plenary Meeting
The coming Plenary Meeting 2010 will be held in Darmstadt, Germany and will take place from September 12th to 15th. The meeting will be organized by the ICFG member Prof. Groche from the Institute for Production Engineering and Forming Machines of the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany. The preliminary program was presented by Prof. Groche. More detailed information will be published on the ICFG website in due time.