48th ICFG Plenary Meeting in Daejeon, Korea

September 13th-16th, 2015

The 48^th Plenary Meeting of the International Cold Forging Group (ICFG) was held from September 13^st to 16^th, 2015 in Daejeon (Korea), hosted by Prof. Dr. Yong Taek Im from the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM).The Plenary Meeting was attended by 53 members and guests from 15 countries. 33 attendees were from academia and 20 from industry. The agenda comprised an Advisory Board meeting and a welcome reception on Sunday, subgroup meetings and Joint sessions on Monday and the Plenary Meeting including the General Assembly on Tuesday. After two days of successful meetings with motivating discussions and interesting presentations, industrial visits provided an insight in the state of the art of Korean cold forging industry on Wednesday.

The Subgroup Meetings

The Subgroup Meetings started in the morning with a joined session to introduce the activities of ICFG and subgroups to the attendees. In addition, new guests had the opportunity to introduce themselves. After the joined session the attendees split up into different groups. It was possible to choose between the subgroups ‘Process simulation’, ‘Tool Life’, ‘Lubrication‘ and ‘Advanced Precision Forming‘. Most Subgroups were started by presentations of invited speakers. Subsequent to these presentations discussions about future topics and activities in this specific subject area occurred. 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 four invited keynotes were given on recent developments and aspects of cold forging. Later Dr. Hänsel opened the General Assembly and welcomed all attendees to Daejon. The ICFG delegates accepted the change of the membership status of Dr. Chengliang Hu and Dr. Xincun Zhuang (both China) to corresponding membership. The meeting also welcomed the new company member Mr. Hahn with his additional members Mr. Choi, Dr. Lee and Mr. Park (Taeyang Metal Industrial Co., Ltd.). Changes within the Advisory Board of the ICFG were announced by Dr. Hänsel. Mr. Yamanaka takes over the chairmanship from Dr. Hänsel. Prof. Dubar was introduced as successor for Prof. Kocanda, who will leave the Advisory Board at the end of 2016. The ICFG International Paper Prize was awarded to Dr. Tobias Schrader for his paper: “Wear characterization of coated cold forging tools”.

Company Visits

After two days of successful sessions with interesting presentations and motivating discussions, a day of company visits followed. The attendees had the possibility to choose between different tours. The first tour started with a visit of the automotive supplier Jinhap in the morning and on Wednesday afternoon the company Bosch Korea welcomed the ICFG delegates to their plant. The second tour lead the attendees to the Hyundai Motor Namyang Research Center, where the group stayed for the whole day.The visits gave the participants an excellent insight into the Korean 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 2016, the Plenary Meeting will be hosted by Prof. Liewald from the Institute of Metal Forming Technology. The meeting is scheduled for September 4^th to 7^th, 2016 in Stuttgart, Germany. Prof. Liewald presented the preliminary program. The Countries where the futures ICFG Plenary Meetings are going to take place were also determined during the meeting. In 2017 the meeting will be held in China and 2018 in India.

The 48^th Plenary Meeting in Daejeon, Korea 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 insight of Korea’s industrial activities in the field of cold forging.

Participants of the 48^th ICFG Plenary Meeting in Daejeon, Korea from September 13^th to 16^th, 2015