This year marks the first ever Forging Industry Educational and Research Foundation (FIERF) competition, enabling university students to partner with leaders in the forging industry as they design, test, and forge their own tuning forks. FIERF is a supporting organization for the Forging Industry Association (FIA), with a specific mission of technology development and education. FIA is partnered directly with ATI to form the Forging Defense Manufacturing Consortium (FDMC).

Teams of up to four students and one faculty advisor had the opportunity to compete for the chance to win recognition and prizes at FIA’s May 2023 Forge Fair Each team forged two tuning forks to an assigned low and high frequency, with a total of nine teams competing. Of the nine teams, three of the teams are from universities FDMC has active projects with. These three universities are Cleveland State University, Colorado School of Mines, and University of North Texas. Each team also had to submit a paper to a panel of judges and present a poster highlighting their approach. FDMC has multiple team members who sit on FIA’s Technical Committee, and were tasked with reviewing and scoring the technical reports submitted.

Ben Abbott, Forged in Fire winner and now judge, announced the winners and the prizes for the competition following his keynote presentation at FIA’s May 2023 Forge Fair. Congratulations to all participants, especially Colorado School of Mines for winning best overall project, University of North Texas for the closest frequency, and University of Cincinnati for the people’s choice award!

For more information about FIA and FIERF please visit Forging Industry Association and Forging Industry Educational and Research Foundation | Home | FIERF.