Metals & Manufacturing Outlook
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METALS OUTLOOK BY ROYCE LOWE remains low, which is necessary when forming critical alloys (e.g., titanium aluminides) with finegrain structures.
Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corp., announced plans to invest $386 million in its Columbus, Ga., facility to increase the production of parts and maintenance services and to reduce costs for new and existing engine programs. The investments will go toward the purchase of automated machinery and equipment upgrades as well as construction of two new buildings on the site. Construction will include a 20,000 square-foot specialized manufacturing facility and related infrastructure to house a new isothermal forging press that will be used to manufacture turbine disks and compressor rotors for Pratt & Whitney engines. In isothermal forging, the dies and the workpiece are heated to the same temperature so that the forming process can take place without loss of temperature. An important benefit of the process is that the operating force needed to shape parts
And Caterpillar Inc. has an agreement in place with FIT AG to design and produce aluminum and titanium parts using additive manufacturing technologies. Caterpillar’s role will be ‘product-specific knowledge’ whereas FIT AG will contribute expertise in additive design. Caterpillar has reportedly 80 3D printers in its R&D and production programs. Charter Steel announced plans to build a special-bar-quality (SBQ) bar mill adjacent to its existing coil mill and steelmaking operations in Cuyahoga Heights, Ohio. The highly automated rolling mill will utilize precision sizing to produce diameters from 0.75 to 3.25 inches (19 to 83 mm) in bar lengths from 12 to 50 feet (3.7 to 15.3 meters). The $150 million project, which will not interrupt existing steel coil operations, will create about 25 jobs and represents the largest single investment in the family-owned company’s 81-year history. Superior Industries Inc. has made a $715 million bid for Uniwheels AG in a deal that will lead it to establish itself as a global supplier of cast aluminum wheels to numerous automakers. Superior is already the self-proclaimed ‘largest manufacturer of aluminum wheels for passenger
cars and light-duty vehicles in North America.’ It casts and finishes wheels in Fayetteville,AR; Southfield, MI and Chihuahua, Mexico, and supplies BMW, FCA, Ford, GM, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota and VW. Uniwheels, Europe’s third-largest supplier of aluminum automotive wheels, has two plants in Germany and one in Poland and supplies Audi, BMW and other renowned European automakers. Gerdau Summit, a joint venture registered last year between Gerdau SA, a Brazilian steelmaker, Japan Steel Works Ltd. and Sumitomo Corp. expects to be producing forged parts for wind-power projects by early next year. Gerdau, with a 59 percent stake in the JV undertook a recent reactivation of a rolling mill where the forging operation will be built. JSW will provide the expertise to cast and forge products for power generation, and Sumitomo will contribute marketing and sales experience. The investment will be $90 million and capacity will be 50,000 tonnes per year of forgings. Sumitomo, with a 39 percent stake, is the holding company for Sumitomo Heavy Industries, a designer and builder of mechanical forging presses. JSW, with 2 percent, manufactures large castings and forgings for industrial machinery, as well as power generation systems.
| April/May 2017