ne can never overestimate the value of collaboration; this is particularly true for research and development. Our cover story this month (Page 18) highlights a few of the many R&D projects that chemists, metallurgists, engineers, physicists and digital geniuses are producing all the time, all over the world.

Potential applications are too numerous to mention but improvements in automotive light weighting, reductions in CO² emissions during production, lowering waste output to zero, removing corrosive elements at the atomic level, and eliminating one or more steps in creating extrusions all promise leaps in metal’s technological prowess.

The collaboration is possible because universities, research centers and national laboratories are seeking answers to questions that will help bolster advances in both pure and applied science.

orldwide, metals producers partner with universities and national laboratories to explore everything from artificial intelligence, big data, the reduction of harmful pollutants during production, preventing corrosion on a nanoscale, shaping material on a microstructure level and producing ductile material from powder.

All these efforts, it is hoped, will make metals stronger, lighter, cleaner, more efficient and longer lasting while creating jobs and a safer environment for workers and consumers. Potential applications are too numerous to mention, but Modern Metals has selected nine of the latest developments to highlight.

leveland Metal Exchange, now CME, has grown and developed through twists and turns over its 26 years of existence as a metals distributor.

When the company launched in 1994, it was “buying secondary material and selling it to manufacturers that were able to use material with defects,” says CME Chief Executive Officer Randy Horvat.

Over time, the secondary market shifted and the company adapted, changing its business model to buying mill direct, then processing and selling prime material. Simultaneously, Cleveland Metal Exchange grew from having a regional footprint to having a national one, which is why the owners are rebranding the company as CME.

ick Werner and John Tassone have 50-plus years of combined experience in the steel industry, and in tube production specifically. Werner was president of Independence Tube Corp., while Tassone was the general manager of sales and marketing. They were part of the management team that helped grow the company by over 400 percent, so it became the second largest structural tube company in the United States.

After Nucor purchased Independence Tube in 2016, Werner and Tassone were soon staying home collecting payments under employment contracts. But each wanted something more, so they formed a limited liability company (Xcite Manufacturing) and began looking for opportunities allowed by their noncompete agreements.

After examining several opportunities, they came across a company in Colorado Springs called Richardson Metals Inc. and purchased its assets in September 2018. They kept both the trade name and all of the non-retiring employees.

he business of manufacturing and moving metals is challenging and often dangerous. Industrial magnets can help improve operations’ efficiency and safety by streamlining processes, protecting workers and preventing damage to materials.

Walker Magnetics, Windsor, Connecticut, has been designing and manufacturing industrial magnetic products for over 120 years and provides custom solutions to lifting, material handling, workholding and separation applications for the metals supply chain from mills to service centers, foundries to fabricators and everything in between.

ailored warehouse automation plays an important role in a profitable business. Every warehouse’s storage needs are different, so attempting to stack products into a one-size-fits-all system typically isn’t the best choice for long-term organization and productivity.

David Veldung, president of Fehr Warehouse Solutions, says that a typical concern he hears from companies who are researching a custom warehouse system is regarding the investment cost.

“We can help with determining the ROI for such a system, which typically is about three years. Also, the integrating from the software side into the existing ERP or MRP software often is a concern—but is not a problem for us. We evaluate material flow as well as conduct analyses to determine the optimum storage size,” he says.

att Shaug has been around the fabrication shop for as long as he can remember. His father, Jerry Shaug, started Shaug Construction nearly 30 years ago and brought his son to work from a young age. “I was pretty much born into the fabrication world,” says current owner Matt Shaug.

The Denair, California, company provides onsite aseptic welding and fabrication for food and beverage equipment makers. The work ranges from simple process tanks to complex evaporators.

Shaug previously used plasma cutting but found that neither his workers nor his customers wanted to deal with the cleanup and less-than-perfect accuracy. After moving away from plasma cutting, Shaug found that farming out waterjet cutting resulted in less than desirable finishes.

veryone has heard about big data’s terminology and promise and can guess what it might mean to harness the intelligence that is lying around on the shop floor, at the sales desk, and even outside the company, among vendors and customers. It’s perhaps a fear that they won’t see an obvious ROI that keeps smaller and midsize metals suppliers and manufacturers from pulling the trigger on acquiring enterprise resource planning tools that would make their operations hum.

Matt Heerey, president of the manufacturing division of ECI Software Solutions, Fort Worth, Texas, has been working with small and midsize manufacturers for many years.

Often, he says, “metal fab shops come to us, and their only access to data is paper, routers, Quickbooks and an Excel spreadsheet. We help them to migrate from those systems to an ERP solution.” With this software tool, “we uncover and capture data from all aspects of an operation and create reports, which is common. But we now also put dashboards in offices and shop floors, giving everyone the ability to see what’s going on in real time and to make decisions accordingly. Many job shops didn’t have that ability historically.”

Shelley Verdun, business manager for powder coatings within PPG’s Industrial Coatings division, is a chemist and a 32-year veteran of the 137-year-old Pittsburgh-based company. The division handles various market segments such as electrical equipment and appliances, automotive underbody components, and office furnishings.

One of the first advantages of powder that PPG discusses with potential customers, including coil coaters, is that such coatings offer a low cost of entry to the market, compared with liquid coatings.

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