Page 10 - MetalForming September 2019

News Fronts
suited for a new-hire—provid- ing specific training for entry- level courses and adding addi- tional courses and training as the employee advances.
Facilities
Spirol Completes Headquarters Expansion
Spirol International Corp., a provider of joining and assem- bly components, recently cele- brated its newly expanded world headquarters in Daniel- son, CT. The expansion includes a 40-percent increase in manufacturing space, ware- houses for raw material and finished goods, a quality lab and office space, flooring, updated lighting, and signifi- cant investments in new pro- duction technology. Jeff Koehl, CEO and grandson of founder
Herman Koehl, was joined by the company’s board of direc- tors for the ribbon cutting.
Bulge Test for Material Formability Evaluation
Tensile testing over time is the first step in determining property variation for new- material forming. However, industrial stamping processes often experience higher strain that surpasses tensile-testing capabilities. For these instances, bulge testing can dramatically improve the accu- racy of the yield surface of new materials.
The EWI Forming Center, Columbus, OH, recently developed bulge test capabili- ty to obtain flow stress of sheet metals to the highest strain level before necking. This differs from conventional bulge testing by adopting digi-
tal image-correlation cam- eras to determine bulging height and curvature profile for strain calculation.
You can learn about it in The Bulge Test: A Valuable Tool for Material Formability Evalua- tion, an EWI white paper: https://ewi.org/?s=Bulge+Test.
Training
PMA and NTMA Applaud Federal Workforce Development Funding
Ongoing efforts by the U.S. manufacturing industry to develop the workforce of tomorrow received a signifi- cant boost with the announcement by the U.S. Department of Labor of $183.8 million in workforce development grants to help create and promote partner-
ships among educational institutions, companies and trade associations. National Tooling and Machining Asso- ciation (NTMA) and Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) applauded the grants, along with the Labor Depart- ment’s announcement to award an additional $100 million in grants for promot- ing apprenticeships.
“There will be an estimated two million vacant manufac- turing jobs by 2025, and the industry cannot close this gap on its own,” says PMA Presi- dent David Klotz. “These fed- eral programs mean that the government is listening to our message that, for manufactur- ing to continue to drive the U.S. economy, this country must invest in helping manu- facturers attract and train the next generation of workers.”
8 MetalForming/September 2019
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