Planning for the future of metal forming

Electric vehicles represents just one major change looming on the horizon for the metal forming community. peterschreiber.media/iStock/Getty Images Plus

The past 25 years have brought about major changes in sheet metal forming, from available materials to technology and processes. I expect the next 10 years to accelerate that change, along with opportunities and challenges. And while my crystal ball is no clearer than anyone else’s, I offer you projections based on my observations, a bit of research, and the hope that we learn from past mistakes.

These issues, and many more, will shape our priorities and business activities in providing sheet metal components. Meeting these challenges requires education, commitment, and the ability to anticipate tomorrow’s demands.

Lightweighting and Battery Electric Vehicles

Managing the increase in vehicle mass—also known as lightweighting—is a significant motivator for automakers to spend millions in R&D related to advanced materials and manufacturing technologies. Current legislation focuses on improving internal combustion engine efficiency to reduce hydrocarbon emissions, and lighter-weight components contribute to that efficiency.

Battery electric vehicles (BEV) upend that legislation. We don’t measure BEV efficiency in miles per gallon. The hydrocarbon footprint of BEVs is indirect, as it comes from the manufacture of the vehicle and from electrical generation to charge the fleet.

These factors will affect lightweighting priorities and material choices. As we continue to learn from our experience with BEVs, the redistribution of vehicle mass from the front and rear of the vehicle (engine and gas) to the center where the batteries are will affect the strength and weight requirements for many automotive components. Savvy component suppliers will follow these advances closely and prepare for changes in materials and design requirements.

Also, vehicle mass is probably the greatest influencer in BEV range. The battery industry expects improvements in battery technologies and cost, but not at the pace we saw over the past 10 years. This will compel manufacturers to seek lighter-weight components to overcome consumer concerns about driving range and the availability of charging infrastructure.

Sustainability

As the global climate changes, there will continue to be an increased focus on reducing human impact. Regardless of our political beliefs, cleaner air, cleaner water, and cultivable land benefit all of us. For those who form sheet metal components, among our best contributions to this goal include using process and environmental energy efficiently, reducing scrap, and applying lubricant intelligently. Water conservation must also be a priority industrywide. Reducing the use of water is imperative in areas stricken by severe drought. Efforts to reduce water consumption include reducing the amount used to perform each task and processing wastewater for reuse in the plant.

One option for reducing wastewater and managing the use of lubrication includes minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), which applies compressed air with a minimal amount of lubricant. It’s been used successfully in millimg, spindle drilling, CNC routing, band and circular saws, roll forming, stamping, and CNC turning.

Digital Projects, Resources, and Literacy

The next five to 10 years will surely introduce even more new technologies—and the challenges of managing those technologies. As with any enterprise technology, the risks and rewards can be high. Adoption and implementation will stretch our management capabilities.

I believe and hope these things will happen soon:

• Scalable and open standards. Available technologies provide an alphabet soup of technology and implementation standards. The best option is to adopt an architecture that’s robust, scalable, and is well enough adopted to ensure it will last for quite a while. The components you adopt should support open interface standards.
• Discrete implementation projects. Big enterprise projects with new and rapidly evolving technologies are expensive, risky, and often unmanageable. Successful companies will adopt a solid architecture and add components as they are needed. Implementing in a staged approach allows you to learn about your new technology, manage your projects better, meet your budget constraints, and meet your most immediate needs first.
• Define the relationship between humans and technology. Technology continues to move further into the workspace occupied by humans. If we manage this properly, technology can be a useful tool in securing reliable and efficient production. The consequences of failure to manage the machine/human relationship can be harmful to our employees and our companies.

The most important action we can take is to teach our workforce about the technologies they use. When employees understand the opportunities and limitations of data collection and analysis, they are better equipped to make better decisions.

The industry also must do a much better job to ensure the integrity of the data collected and how it is analyzed and presented. The risks of poor decisions and destructive consequences from poor data analysis are too high to ignore.

Define the Nature of Work

The nature of work is changing. Technology, employee expectations, a market starved for talent, the gig economy, and the pandemic upended our traditional relationship with employment. Employee/employer relationships may be stressed over the next few years while each adapts to new expectations and a different attitude toward work.

This isn’t necessarily bad news. When many of us started our careers, employers expected us to bow to unreasonable expectations. I remember being asked to put in overtime solely because a manager wanted his people to look “dedicated.” Silly expectations and unprofessional management behavior should no longer be tolerated. Businesses need to use employees as efficiently as they should use physical resources. Our focus should be on production quality and supporting employees’ needs for lives outside of work. In this way, we can gain teams that work smarter.

Final Word

We’ll face many changes in the years ahead. If we anticipate changes and implement strategies to manage them, our businesses can thrive with new opportunities and productive employees and equipment.

We need to support our employees to learn new technologies, materials, and processes. We need to deploy new technologies intelligently and with a deep insight into our goals for those technologies.

This is an exciting time to be in sheet metal forming. Let’s learn, plan, and have some productive fun.