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The magazine for metal service centers, fabricators & OEMs/end users
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Metallurgy and more...
August 2020
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Special Advertising Section - Learn More
The magazine for metal service centers, fabricators & OEMs/end users
Subtitle
Metallurgy and more...
August 2020
Down Arrow Icon
August2020
trend publishing metals group  Volume 76 Number 7
Modern Metals logo
agricultural outlook
North American farms are essential but a global pandemic means they are sowing caution alongside soybeans, wheat and corn
Metal Service Centers logo
conference preview
SMU tells subscribers what’s happening and why so they can do their jobs better
work conference
August2020
trend publishing metals group  Volume 76 Number 7
Modern Metals logo
agricultural outlook
North American farms are essential but a global pandemic means they are sowing caution alongside soybeans, wheat and corn
Metal Service Centers logo
features
work conference
conference preview
SMU tells subscribers what’s happening and why so they can do their jobs better
processor machine
coil processing
Mexican processor employs automated features on high-speed blanking line
screenshot of files
erp/software solutions
Software helps service centers enhance internal communications and manage tasks for improved business practices
metal tube
tube & pipe
A startup backed by Heidtman Steel is ready to overhaul the tube market
steel workers
metallurgy
Steel process uses existing infrastructures to provide corrosion-resistant, highly formable and better-performing material
departments
processor machine
screenshot of files
metal tube
steel workers
features
coil processing
Mexican processor employs automated features on high-speed blanking line
erp/software solutions
Software helps service centers enhance internal communications and manage tasks for improved business practices
tube & pipe
A startup backed by Heidtman Steel is ready to overhaul the tube market
metallurgy
Steel process uses existing infrastructures to provide corrosion-resistant, highly formable and better-performing material
Comprehensive industry coverage anytime, anywhere
VIA 57 West project
/stainless
Inside a steel factory
/servicecenters
Factory line sawing metal
/sawing
Online
Features
The VIA 57 West project is a hybrid between the European perimeter block and a traditional Manhattan high-rise
Supply chain leader embraces Industry 4.0 by taking a phased approach to digitalization
One-size-fits-all is no match for transparent collaboration
@ symbol
Workers on the Hoover Dam
Facebook
Work on the Hoover Dam, built by ArcelorMittal predecessor Bethlehem Steel, started 90 years ago
Photo: BMW
Damascus steel close-up
Twitter
Legendary Damascus steel 3D printed by varying temperature of layers
ow.ly/cXy930qV16B
@nwtls
Photo: Frank Vinken
Close-up of welds
Instagram
.090 aluminum #welding #tig #aluminum #metalworker #welder
Corinna Petry headshot
fromtheeditor
BY corinna petry
Defense strategy
W

henever I start worrying about the demand picture for mass quantities of metals products, I turn to the U.S. Department of Defense page that shows contract awards and contract extensions. There is a great deal of business transacted with our military and with our allies throughout the world.

In addition, many service centers and others throughout the metals supply chain are qualified to work with the Defense Logistics Agency. Suppliers vetted and approved by the DLA provide a vast array of materials for trucks and airplanes, tanks and barracks, warehouses and weapons, barges and medical equipment.

facetime
BY Lauren Duensing
Knowledge bank
Justin Philipp, COO of NSPS Metals, says it’s necessary that companies perform succession planning to preserve tribal knowledge
Q:
What are some of the changing dynamics in the metals industry?

A: It’s no mystery that the steel industry workforce is getting older. When I describe it as “older,” I am referring to the people, the talent and the decision-makers. Steel companies are still making many critical decisions based on tribal knowledge, gut feel or pure historical experience, so it is absolutely critical that companies within the steel industry begin to diversify their knowledge base, develop talent, and begin the process of succession planning and career development to ensure that their associates’ knowledge and experience doesn’t dwindle with each retirement.

tradetalk
Update Shredding-Weitsman Recycling scrap recycling
Recycler to build new scrap processing facility
Update Shredding-Weitsman Recycling plans to build a scrap recycling and retail steel service center outside Ithaca, New York. The project will include new buildings, pavement, fencing, landscaping and scrap processing equipment. It will comply with state and local environmental requirements, including storm water runoff systems, retention pond and other safeguards to ensure that the quality of the air, soil and water are preserved.
Eye On People
OBITUARY: TIGERSTOP FOUNDER DIES—Spencer Dick, founder of Tigerstop, died in June after a long illness. In his home garage in 1994, Dick invented a machine for automated lineal processing that could be adapted to nearly any tool and position material accurately for cutting, drilling and punching. He formed a company that became known for automated stop-gauge positioners and fully automated sawing systems, with a factory in Vancouver, Washington, and another in The Netherlands. Dick earned more than 100 patents for ideas in manufacturing, automation, and lineal positioning processes.

The American Iron and Steel Institute’s directors elected John Brett, president and CEO of ArcelorMittal USA, as board chairman for a one-year term. Brett has been serving as interim chairman since mid-March after Roger Newport, CEO of AK Steel Holdings Inc., retired. AISI also elected Kevin Dempsey as interim president and CEO to succeed Thomas J. Gibson. Dempsey has served as AISI’s senior vice president for public policy and general counsel since 2009.

Zekelman Industries promoted Tom Muth, a 30-year steel industry veteran, to executive vice president and COO of the newly created Tubular Products Division. The business includes Wheatland Tube, Western Tube, Atlas Tube, Picoma and Sharon Tube. Jeff Cole was promoted to president of Atlas Tube. He joined the company in 1993 and served most recently as vice president of operations, overseeing HSS plants.

Andrew Rose, president of Worthington Industries, Columbus, Ohio, will also take on the role of CEO effective Sept. 1, succeeding long-time chairman and CEO John P. McConnell, who will remain with the company as executive chairman.

newproducts
man standing with dual control boxes
Packaging line updated
TAB Industries introduced dual control boxes on its automated TAB Wrapper Tornado/Perfect Storm wrapping systems. The optional dual control boxes are set on both sides of the machine to allow safe, quick access when operating in manual mode without requiring movement around the length of the system’s built-in conveyors. The dual control box option speeds and eases film roll changes while also offering extra configuration flexibility, allowing the system to fit neatly into existing packaging and shipping processes.

TAB Industries LLC, Reading, Pennsylvania, 610/921-0012, tabwrapper.com.

agriculturaloutlook
Harvesting sugarbeets in Frankenmuth, Michigan (left). Ripening wheat (inset).
Photos: USDA
Harvesting sugarbeets in Frankenmuth, Michigan (left). Ripening wheat (inset).
Photos: USDA
farming vehicles
Ripening wheat growing
Green
Shoots
North American farms are essential but a global pandemic means they are sowing caution alongside soybeans, wheat and corn
BY Corinna Petry
dirt and grass
“T

here seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle.”

conferencepreview
Networking reception at the 2019 SMU Steel Summit in Atlanta.
The Buzz
SMU tells subscribers what’s happening and why so they can do their jobs better
By Corinna Petry
T

here’s a song in the Broadway musical Jesus Christ Superstar called “What’s the Buzz,” which might remind some folks of the news-gathering business. John Packard, who had a long career in the steel industry, was always attuned to the buzz of industry talk and, for the past dozen years, has paid close attention to the information he heard, analyzed it and amplified it through a well-received newsletter. Packard is the founder of Steel Market Update.

Packard studied to become a teacher, graduated, went home, then asked his college sweetheart to come visit him, with the hope of proposing marriage. She broke up with him instead. “That put me at a crossroads,” he recalls.

coilprocessing
Serviacero Comercial expects to process 50,000 tons a year in the short term. Initially, about 10 percent will be high-strength steels, but it will increase that percentage over time.
Demands Met
Mexican processor employs automated features on high-speed blanking line
By Corinna Petry
S

erviacero Comercial is part of a network of service center and processing facilities across the manufacturing-rich regions of Mexico. Owned and operated by the Zermeño family, the company has expanded its reach and capabilities over the past 54 years.

The Serviacero parent group comprises 24 service centers in the states of Guanajuato, Nuevo León, Queretaro, Jalisco, San Luis Potosi, Michoacán, Aguascalientes, Hidalgo, Sonora and Mexico City.

Its services include laser-quality cut to length for light- and heavy-gauge material, slitting, pickling and oiling; roll forming for wall and deck panels and roll-formed profiles; tubular manufacturing and processing; steel grating manufacturing and fabrication; laser/plasma cutting, bending, machining, welding and painting; and the design and manufacturing of steel racks and containers.

erp/softwaresolutions
Inside Connections featured
Inside

Connections
Software helps service centers enhance internal communications and manage tasks for improved business practices
By Lynn Stanley
S

ervice centers need the right software tools to navigate in a fast-paced, rapidly fluctuating climate. Rapid growth coupled with increased restrictions and regulations means managers must be vigilant about overseeing the ins and outs of their business. They also must be able to access information quickly to make decisions in real time.

“Communication is even more important now with so many people working remotely,” says Paul Parsons, vice president of sales and marketing for 4GL Solutions. The Stouffville, Ontario-based company writes ERP software tailored to the needs of service centers. Last year, 4GL released Task Manager, a product that covers the breadth of a client’s activities and connects managers with personnel from the shop floor to the top floor. Task Manager also supports social distancing by minimizing or eliminating the need for face-to-face interaction among employees, Parsons adds.

tube&pipe
Steel Synergy featured
Steel

Synergy
A startup backed by Heidtman Steel is ready to overhaul the tube market
By Lauren Duensing
A

n investment in knowledge pays the best interest,” said inventor and founding father Benjamin Franklin. As the experienced team at Toledo, Ohio-based Heidtman Steel embarks on its newest investment—a tube mill joint venture located at its Erie, Michigan, campus, just north of Toledo—it relies on knowledge as a driving force toward success.

During its 65-plus years in business, Heidtman has been a part of several industry firsts, including building the largest pickling line of any service center in the United States, being one of the five founding investors in Steel Dynamics, and was the first service center to market thin slab mill products to the automotive industry.

“John Bates Sr. not only has always been able to recognize an opportunity but also has the guts to do something about it. That’s a big part of how he grew this company,” says Tim Berra, Heidtman’s president and CEO.

metallurgy
Homogenous grades don’t always provide optimal performance; end users must make trade-offs between surface properties provided by the steel and its bulk properties.
Material
modification
Steel process uses existing infrastructures to provide corrosion-resistant, highly formable and better-performing material
BY Lindsey Besson

A

rcanum Alloys Inc., a technology-driven company, has created an altered process flow that meets current needs and anticipates future commercial applications. Arcanum Alloys’ proprietary process, called spatially optimized diffusion alloy (SODA), is altering steel processing to serve innovators that demand better performance.

Originally founded in 2011, this Silicon Valley startup moved to Kentwood, Michigan, to expand its team and bring its technology to commercial scale. Arcanum Alloys’ SODA process was developed on 1-square-inch panels in the laboratory but has since scaled to the production of 20-ton coils.

“Our process is disrupting current metallurgical methods and steel manufacturing as we know it. This revolutionary technology possesses the solution for products across many evolving industries,” says Arcanum Alloys’ founder and CEO, Dan Bullard.

partingshot

Tower of Spiral
Shenzhen, China
“We need a natural place to clear up the melancholy mood in busy urban life,” according to principals with the architectural firm Doarchi. The Tower of Spiral is located near Shenzhen, China, surrounded by mountains. The site is in a highland area, with a pool reserved for irrigation. Around the pool, Doarchi created a straightforward and simple ascending space, so that people can observe and feel nature at different latitudes. Tower of Spiral provides a slow-flowing way of viewing one’s surroundings. Visitors enter the relatively narrow tower and climb gradually to the top. Tower of Spiral’s core is formed by the spiral steps that twist a total of 810 degrees, supported by steel columns. Doarchi encased the structure in a concertina-like steel shell, the upper sections covered with plastic film and the lower with tensioned metal mesh.
Photo: SCHRAN
SHENZHEN, CHINA
ModernMetals
President/Publisher Michael D’Alexander
Editorial
Editor-in-Chief
Corinna Petry
Senior Editor
Gretchen Salois
Senior Editor
Lynn Stanley
Senior Contributing Editor
J. Neiland Pennington
Contributing Editor
Lauren Duensing
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Modern Metals® (ISSN 0026-8127, USPS 357-640) August 2020, Vol. 76, No. 7 is a registered trademark of Trend Publishing Inc. Modern Metals® is published 11 times a year by Trend Publishing Inc., with its publishing office located at 123 W. Madison St., Suite 950, Chicago, Illinois 60602, 312/654-2300; fax 312/654-2323. Michael J. D’Alexander, President, Trend Publishing Inc. Copyright 2020 by Trend Publishing Inc. All rights reserved under the United States, International, and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means—mechanical, photocopying, electronic recording or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Trend Publishing Inc. This publication is sent free of charge to qualified subscribers. Single copies $14. Paid subscriptions in the U.S. $125/year. Canada, $145/year. Foreign subscriptions, $180/year surface mail and $260/year air mail. If interested in a free subscription go to www.modernmetals.com to see if you qualify. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Modern Metals® c/o Creative Data Services, Inc., 440 Quadrangle Drive Suite E, Bolingbrook, IL 60440. Printed in the USA.
The magazine for metal service centers, fabricators & OEMs/end users
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