46th ICFG Plenary Meeting in Paris, France
September 15-18, 2013
The 46th Plenary Meeting of the International Cold Forging Group (ICFG) was held from September 15th to 18th, 2013 in Paris (France), hosted by Prof. Dubar from University of Valenciennes. The Plenary Meeting was attended by 103 participants from 16 countries. 47 attendees were from academia and 56 were from industry. The itinerary comprised an Advisory Board meeting and a welcome reception on Sunday, subgroup meetings on Monday and the Plenary Meeting including the General Assembly on Tuesday. After two days of successful meetings with fruitful discussions and interesting presentations, industrial visits provided an insight in the state of the art of France cold forging industry on Wednesday.
The Subgroup Meetings
In the morning a joined session of the subgroups was held for introducing the activities of ICFG and of subgroups. In addition new guests had the opportunity to introduce themselves. All new guests were welcomed with applause. After the joined session the attendees were split up into different groups. In the session of the subgroup ‘Process simulation’ a draft for a new document and upcoming activities were discussed. In the subgroup ‘Tool Life & Tool Quality’ a valuable presentation was held and tool life management as a future subgroup topic was discussed. The ‘Discussion Forum’ was led by Dr. Hänsel and focused on future structure and communication of ICFG. A presentation about ‘Continuous Training of Specialists on Design and Optimization of hot, warm and cold forging processes using FEM simulation technologies’ was given. In addition, design and structure of the new ICFG website were discussed. In the afternoon the sessions of the topic teams ‘Aluminum’, ‘Lightweigth’ and ‘Lubrication’ took place. The results of each session were presented in a joined session.
Plenary Meeting and General Assembly
The Plenary Meeting on Tuesday was opened by the ICFG chairman Dr. Hänsel. In the morning six invited keynotes were given on recent developments and aspects of cold forging.
In the afternoon Dr. Hänsel opened the General Assembly and welcomed all attendees to Paris. The ICFG delegates accepted the change of membership status of Prof. Cser (Hungary) and Prof. Azushima (Japan) to emeritus membership. The attendees welcomed twelve new corresponding members, namely Dr. Ducloux (France), Dr Karadogan (Turkey), Mr Muralishankar (India), Mr. Ziarsolo (Spain), Mr. Le Bruchec (France), Mr. Chazot (France), Dr. Mocellin (France), Dr. Lee (Korea), Dr. Holz (Germany), Dr. Ostrowski (Germany), Prof. Wang (Japan) and Mr. Mehta (USA) and four new full members, namely Dr. Herlan (Germany), Prof. Dubar (France), Prof. Liewald (Germany) and Mr. Shi (P.R. China). Mr. Dahme quitted his membership and H.P. Pouw passed away. Additionally, Sunway and Nichidai were welcomed as new company members with Mr. Shi and Mr. Ogura as principals, respectively.
Within the Advisory Board of the ICFG, Dr. Hänsel welcomed Dr. Ghiotti as a new member of the Advisory Board and Mr. Yamanaka as the incoming vice-chairman.
In 2013, the ICFG Paper Prize was awarded to Okan Görtan.
Company Visits
After two days of successful sessions with interesting presentations and fruitful discussion, a day of company visits followed. On Wednesday the company SETFORGE welcomed the ICFG delegates to their plant in Hagondange. The tour was combined with a champagne cellar and tasting tour. The second tour was R&D orientated. CETIM (French Center for Mechanical Industry) and ‘Centre des Matériaux’ of Mines ParisTech warmly welcomed the ICFG delegates. The visits gave for the participants an excellent insight in France cold forging industry. The ICFG thanked the companies for providing the possibility of visiting.
Forthcoming ICFG Plenary Meetings
Within the General Assembly the dates and venues of the future plenary meetings were announced. In 2014, the Plenary Meeting will be hosted by Dr. Karadogan from Metal Forming Center of Excellence in Turkey. The meeting is scheduled for September 21th to 24th, 2014 in Ankara, Turkey. Dr. Karadogan presented the preliminary program.
The 46th Plenary Meeting in Paris, France gave participants the opportunity to exchange information, to continue cooperation and to create ideas for new research and development projects. The organizers must be congratulated on arranging such a varied program and on giving participants an impressive taste of France´s industrial activities in the field of cold forging.
Pictures of the Plenary Meeting 2013 are provided here.