Please notify any friends and colleagues you had planned on attending with.

Thank you,

Joe Brown

Old Carco sold the metal-stamping plant in Twinsburg, Ohio, to Maynards Industries Ltd. of Vancouver, BC, Canada, but the AP said the liquidation company has been unable to attract new businesses to the site and that it will auction the plant's equipment and other assets after it closes, as scheduled, at the end of the month.

The Twinsburg stamping plant has gone from employment of about 1,000 to less than 300, and all will be laid off except for 77 workers who will stay until the end of July. Like the "old" General Motors Co., which also stayed behind after GM went through a quick bankruptcy last summer, the former Chrysler has sold or is attempting to sell many former assembly plants or other smaller manufacturing operations the new, pared-down Chrysler no longer needs. The proceeds are to be allocated to creditors of the former Chrysler.

Thanks to Bill Visnic from, The Auto Observer for contributing this article.

CLEVELAND — 2009 was an awful year for most manufacturers but, so far, 2010 looks like a turnaround year. 

Wire-Net is a manufacturers' group with more than 200 members in Greater Cleveland.

Its president, John Colm, says, "We've turned the corner. We're clawing our way out of a deep hole. It's very broad-based, including metal stamping and forged products, consumer products and construction products. Folks are hiring 12 workers, maybe adding a whole second shift."

E.F. Kitzel and Sons is a West Side Cleveland precision manufacturer that serves automotive, aerospace and medical industry customers.

"We've seen a real dramatic pick-up in our business. In the last month, we hired two additional employees. We're up about 40 percent for the year. It looks like it's going to continue," said Kitzel General Manager Tom Schuman.    

Across town at Collinwood's Talan Products stamping plant, it's the same story.

Company CEO Steve Peplin says, "We're having a really good year."

And it's picking up.

"A month and a half ago, we were running four, ten-hour shifts. Now we're running five, 20-hour shifts and 12 hours on Saturday," Peplin.

Northeast Ohio looks to medicine and bioresearch as the future but manufacturing still plays a big role in the regional economy.

"It's definitely good new for Cleveland. Twenty percent of our economy's based in manufacturing," says Colm.

Manufacturing is often one of the last economic sectors to emerge from a recession following housing and financial services.

It's playing a leading role now.

The following report and data are courtesy of Ohio State University Graduate Student, Eren Billur, from the Center for Precision Forming (CPF) as it appeared in FMA Publication, The Stamping Journal.

Die materials and wear in stamping AHSS, Part III

Research results and recommended die materials and lubrications

Many cast-iron and steel grades are used for manufacturing dies in the stamping industry. The cost of these materials varies considerably, but with appropriate surface treatments, coatings, and lubricants, a cost-effective die material can outperform the expensive ones.

Die material selection requires a systematic evaluation of tool materials, coatings, and heat treatments, with cost considered as a parameter. Having a proper knowledge of surface treatments and coatings can save money in stamping die manufacturing.

Comparative Studies

Several studies rank tool materials and coatings using a widely accepted standard test.^{1, 2} However, they do not give quantitative information regarding tool life under practical stamping conditions. There are a number of publications on comparative die wear studies, yet not many of them use advanced high-strength steel (AHSS) as sheet material. Figure 1 provides a summary of ranking results.³

Benchmark Studies

Benchmark studies give a numeric comparison of tool life (number of good parts stamped) for a given tool material and coating. Forming tests were conducted until galling and scratches were visible on the sheet metal.

The first study was a channel forming test using uncoated DP600. Figure 2 shows the results of this study.

A similar study was performed with uncoated DP980 material using the part seen in Figure 3. The forming tests were conducted up to52,000 stampings, and results are shown in the figure.4  As a benchmark, forming of a B-pillar inner also showed that conventional tool materials fail from heavy galling after making a few hundred stampings in AHSS. Figure 4 shows how the tool life of D2 changes with three different coatings.5

Guidelines and Recommendations

For the forming of AHSS with 500-to 800-MPa tensile strength, several tool steel companies, industrial experts, and research facilities recommend the following tool materials, treatments, and coatings.^6,7

• Hardened Carmo
• D2 + TD
• D2 + PVD CrN
• D2 + CVD TiC
• Vanadis 4E + PVD CrN
• Vanadis 4E + CVD TiC
• Vanadis 6 + PVD CrN
• Vanadis 6 + CVD TiC
• Hardened Vancron 40

FEA Prediction of Die Wear

The wear coefficient can be used to simulate wear progression using the pressure distribution and sliding distances are not constant throughout a stamping die, inserts may be used to reduce wear at critical locations in the dies. At this point, simulations can be useful for the proper design of die inserts. Figure 5 shows how simulations can be used to determine the locations of mild and severe die wear.

When the wear coefficient and surface hardness of tools and sheet used to estimate how many successful parts can be stamped before galling and scratches become visible. With these parameters, we can estimate tool life, and insert design can be improved.

The original version of this article from the May 2010 version of The Stamping Journal is available at http://nsmwww.eng.ohio-state.edu/May10R_DUpdate_628-9.pdf