From the Web: Sisters making it in the USA; welding after midnight; improving 3-D printing

The third annual National Manufacturing Day, Oct. 3, officially declared by presidential proclamation, is history. If you participated, you know just how gratifying it can be to have young people tour your facility and learn what modern-day manufacturing is all about. If you didn’t here’s a glimpse of what happened at one manufacturing facility.

Fort Smith, Ark.-based KMF Metal Fabrication opened its doors to the public, including a group of students from Darby Junior Highs School’s Technology Student Association.

Company Vice President Christy Koprovic led the student tour and told them about the skills needed not only to operate the machines found inside KMF, but also to be able to properly measure and make goods needed by other area manufacturers that use the machines and items KMF produces. Among the skills needed in the trade are math, science, and critical thinking.

Koprovic alerted the students to the potential in manufacturing, explaining that often the salary and benefits within the industry are among the best in the local economy. But she said as the industry continues to change, the students must use the skills they are learning now in order to be prepared for a career that can start as soon as some leave their high school graduation ceremony.

Among those participating in southeastern Wisconsin was Milwaukee, Wis.-based Super Steel, where students from area schools and technical colleges toured the 450,000-sq.-ft. facility

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., spoke at the event and urged the young people in attendance to consider manufacturing as a career. “We communicate to kids that unless you have a four-year degree, you’re a second-class citizen,” he said. “But that’s bunk. When you graduate high school, make sure you are aware of all your options.”

Johnson, who has 31 years of manufacturing experience himself as the owner of Oshkosh-based Pacur, said it can be difficult to find qualified people to fill manufacturing jobs even though there are plenty of good-paying available positions.

Super Steel President and CEO Dirk Smith said the company, which currently employs 386 people, is hiring for 50 new welding positions. “I would hire 50 today if I could find them,” Smith said. “The skills gap is real, but we’re being creative about doing the training ourselves.”

Hopefully some of Super Steel’s future trainees were among those in attendance on Manufacturing Day.

If you think more women should and are entering the manufacturing workforce, you’re right. They’re not only filling jobs in manufacturing facilities. Some are running them. Take, for example, sisters Kathleen Byrnes and Monica Hargis, who never dreamed they’d find themselves running Middleburg Hts., Ohio-based Tri-Craft Inc. and Tech-Matic Industries.

Their story is relatively common among family-owned businesses, where the reins are passed down from generation to generation. Where it might differ from some is that Byrnes, a banker for two decades, had never worked a day in the business her father co-founded nearly 50 years ago. It was her father’s dying wish that she and her sister take it over.

Byrnes said, “I never worked here prior to stepping in to his position. It was a life-changing event. But my background in banking and business made the transition easier than I thought it would be.”

The sisters worked hard to modernize the business and the workforce has almost doubled. Byrnes’ biggest challenge? Finding skilled labor.

In its efforts to train the next generation of workers, one educational facility is trying something that isn’t for everyone, but definitely benefits students with very busy lives.

Tidewater Community College, Portsmouth, Va., is offering a welding course that begins at 12:30 a.m., and that’s great for students like Kevin Dusza, 24, who works construction during the day.

Dusza welded in garages for years, but he needed to get certified to land a job, so he signed up for the class. It was a good move. He’s already landed a job as a structural welder in Florida and will be heading there after the eight-week course is completed.

Still thinking about adding 3-D printing to your fabricating operation? You might want to table your decision a little while longer.

As reported on inside3dp.com, researchers continue to work to improve additive manufacturing for metal parts.

”Despite the heavy investment in metal 3-D printing, the technology is still new enough so that methods to ensure superior quality and complex printing free of errors have still not been fully developed. As the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School Of Engineering puts it, ‘developing complex geometries with fewer errors and distortions, as well as quality standards to test the manufactured items, have not kept pace with the technology.’

”To combat the problems presented by this underdevelopment, engineers at the Swanson School have been awarded two major grants that will fund research into the advancement of qualification standards and efficient complex modeling for additive manufacturing in metal.

“Additive manufacturing continues to demonstrate its ability to manufacture very complex lattice structures and geometries, enabling us to build complex structures that would be difficult to replicate using traditional or “subtractive” manufacturing,” said principal researcher Dr. Albert To. “However, these increasingly complex parts are very time-consuming to model and therefore more prone to errors. The grant will enable us to develop computer codes that first will automate the finite element simulation of certain AM process and material. By improving the modeling of these complex, sometimes microscopic structures, we can design the process path and/or part geometry to reduce residual stress that causes failure to the part during manufacturing.”