Page 19 - MetalForming-Dec-2018-issue

Testing Evolves to Tackle Evolving Materials and Processes
A visit to a testing- equipment supplier in Germany revealed challenges in evaluating newer steels in unique processes, and how those challenges are met.
BY LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR
Mid-October provided the opportunity to take an up- close look at sheetmetal testing products and applications. ZwickRoell, Ulm, Germany, invited MetalForming to its testXpo: 27th International Forum for Materials Testing. The ZwickRoell Group includes companies specializing in various areas of materials and com- ponents testing. That includes Zwick- Roell in North America (www.zwick- roell.com), Kennesaw, GA. Focusing on growing its U.S. market, ZwickRoell used testXpo to announce that it has
BMW employs various testing methods to ensure formability of materials to meet chal- lenging auto-panel designs, as shown in this exhibit at BMW World at the carmaker’s headquarters in Munich, Germany.
found a new Kennesaw location to build ZwickRoell’s new North American headquarters, a facility slated for com- pletion in 2020.
The company’s headquarters in Germany, with about 1100 employees, includes automotive and metals com- petence centers. The centers house
various sheetmetal-testing equip- ment for use by primary metals pro- ducers, service centers and metal- formers as well as their end-use customers such as automotive, aero- space and medical OEMs. We saw these machines in action, used for resistance, force and displacement as well as other measurements.
“The U.S. market is very important to us,” Dr. Jan-Stefan Roell, CEO of ZwickRoell GmbH and representing the third-generation of leadership in his family company, told MetalForming during our visit. “Our U.S. sales figures are growing rapidly. To show our com- mitment, we recently bought land in Kennesaw for our North American headquarters.”
Recognizing the lean-and-mean nature of the North American sheet- metal-forming and fabricating indus- tries, Roell stresses the need for pro- fessionals in these industries to know the limits of their materials.
MetalForming viewed various testing machines and applications during ZwickRoell’s testXpo at its headquarters in Ulm, Germany, this past fall.
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