Review:
SMF2002
The
National Conference on Sheet Metal Forming (SMF 2002) was held between
December 3-4, 2002, at Mumbai. This international conference presented
the current status and trends of Indian sheet metal industries. It was
organised by the Sheet Metal Forming Research Association (SMFRA), keeping
in mind its vision to make the Indian sheet metal industries globally
competitive. The event was inaugurated by Corporate Advisor, PR Bapat
and was followed by technical sessions.
While
discussing the developments in steel for auto application, T Venugopalan
of Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, stated that the automobile for tomorrow will
have to meet the challenges of green house gas emission, safety, reliability
and comfort. His talk covered some of the relevant and important cost-effective
and technically efficient solutions, being offered by flat rolled steel.
Jyoti
Mukopadhyay, GM-R&D, Hindalco Industries Limited, spoke about the
use of aluminium sheets for automobile industry. He insisted that attempts
should be made for maximum utilisation of aluminium alloys, for making
several components from engine parts to suspension components, using
sheet metal forming technique.
Superplastic
forming was an area that BP Kashyap from the Department of Metallurgical
Engineering and Materials Science, IIT, Mumbai concentrated on. He pontificated
that, though superplastic forming is already used in various industries
in several countries, it has been only marginally employed in our country.
A
Rasquinha of Electropnuematics & Hydraulics (India) Limited spoke
about sheet hydroforming as a means to achieve quality-cost leadership.
He highlighted the benefits that sheet hydroforming offers and which
have led to its increasing usage in manufacture of auto components.
PA
Fernandez of Bruder Presses India Private Limited gave a presentation
on mechanical/servo link drive presses for next generation press working
applications. He stressed that the future machines must meet in terms
of productivity and flexibility.
Multi-slide
forming presses for high productivity applications, was the topic of
the paper presented by Susheel N Choubal, Senior Manager, Production
Engineering Electrical Standard Products. He emphasised that multi-slide
forming technology needs to be explored in detail by the Indian sheet
metal manufacturer. ..(contd)
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