Joyworks

At the Joyworks Studio, our close collaboration with Applied Process means that we are also working to “grow the pie” for Austempering.  With its induction melting capabilities, Joyworks is well suited to produce high quality ductile iron in heats up to 200 lbs.  One of AP’s sales engineers, Henry Frear, has grasped upon that capability and is actively pursuing a steel-forging-to-ADI conversion.  The customer makes a certain small hammer from a steel forging.  He’s faced with a high price and the prospect of replacing the expensive forging tooling.  Henry convinced them to give ADI a try.  A successful conversion would reduce the per part cost and greatly reduce the tooling cost….while improving the performance of the part.  The customer agreed and Henry went into action.  He designed and machined a pattern, made molds and brought them to Joyworks.  Assisted by his fellow AP sales engineer, Justin Lefevre and Joyworks assistants Demetri Golematis and Ryan Breneman, they have produced parts in both ADI and CADI for testing by the customer.  We are confident that a successful conversion will result and the Austempering pie will grow.  At Joyworks, creativity is the essence of what we do.  This project is good old fashioned American ingenuity…..a new, better idea, conceived, designed and made in the USA.  Joyworks is glad to be a part of it.

At Joyworks Studio, we are involved in ductile iron and Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) research……..but we’re more than that.  We do artworks and personal creations in steel, cast iron, bronze and aluminum.  But the other function of Joyworks is teaching students (young and old) about the metal casting process.  One of the recent projects was executed by a team of Material Science and Engineering students from the University of Michigan.  They explored computer modeling and the derivation of the thermodynamics of solidification.  They modeled the process and compared their model to the experimental casting results.  They packaged the whole thing in a video that can be found on YouTube ( ). Check it out. It’s worth a look.  Congratulations to the team of Jason Meng, Ali Al-Heji, Chencheng Zhou, Wenkun Wu and Wenjia Wang for a job well done.

As Memorial Day approaches we want to thank the men and women of our US armed forces for their service.  It is they who sacrifice to protect our liberty…..so that we can do what we do.  Thank you for your service.

Those of us in the Midwest US have seen our share of rain this year.  Southeast Michigan has just recorded the wettest spring on record and we’ve got three weeks left!  Although we are complaining about the rain and the gloom and minor inconveniences it brings, we mourn for those in the Mississippi River valley and the south who have suffered extensive flooding and killer tornadoes.

Do you sometimes wonder if the people doing the talking on television really BELIEVE what they’re talking about?  I do wonder.  Lately all the buzz has been about taking away billions in “subsidies” for oil companies.  Once that was stated by one reporter I must have heard it 1,000 times from 500 different people.  So I decided to find out the facts.  The oil companies take advantage of Research & Development tax credits.  These are the “subsidies” that we’re giving to the oil companies.  Gosh, suddenly I feel crooked, because my companies also take advantage of the R&D credits for the research that we do.  I’ve never considered it a subsidy….but then I actually PAY taxes.  But I’m game.  Let’s eliminate R&D tax credits for ALL COMPANIES.  Then maybe GE might have to pay some taxes.  American taxpayers aren’t stupid, and they are fair minded.  That’s why I find it particularly cynical when political people and slanted journalists blur federal revenues and spending.  People and organizations that create wealth and pay taxes are not “subsidized”.  People that receive checks from taxpayers and “spread the money around” are.

Here at Joyworks studio we are, most often, experimenting on, or creating with metals.  Just recently the Joyworks team (aided by some University of Michigan MSE’s) did some alloy development work on Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) for Applied Process (www.appliedprocess.com ).  Coming up next is some proprietary work on cast steel.  (I can’t wait to see if AP can Austemper it….I digress) 

We do, however, get out from time to time.  I recently had the good fortune to visit an AWESOME manufacturing shop.  My friend, Dr. Bill Dobbins’, Caster Concepts shop is tucked in along a quiet bend in Michigan Avenue in Albion, Michigan USA.  These guys do it all; engineering, prototyping, testing and build-to-order manufacturing.  (www.casterconcepts.com). I love their slogan, “Beyond Standard”.  I wish I’d thought of it.

Awesome website: www.addictomatic.com (You cannot beat that name).

I was pre-programmed to be an engineer.  I started taking things apart as soon as I could walk.  (Okay….I was a “hard to handle” child).  But I remember another piece of sage advice from my father.  He said that if you pay somebody to do a task for you, you simply get the task done in exchange for cash.  If (at least once) you buy the tool and do the task yourself you get a three-fer.  You save some money, you get to keep the tool and you learn how to do that task yourself.  You should see my toolbox!

Last night, 19 April, I enjoyed attending the student MSE 365 Poster Session at the Materials Science and Engineering Department’s Van Vlack Laboratory ( msewww.engin.umich.edu ) in the Dow Building on the North Campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Here the students assembled their projects for review and questioning by Prof. Brian Love and other staff and faculty. Although all of the projects stood on their own merits, one of the projects was of particular interest to me.  That team of students modeled the solidification of a casting and then poured it in ductile iron at the Joyworks studio.  A major lesson learned: insufficient draft in a pattern can make it impossible to draw a pattern from the sand……but once we got past that they made some passable ductile iron.  (I’d even consider Austempering it!).  They mapped the alloy segregation in the sample, modeled the cooling and compared it to the actual and even made some UoM seals suitable for finishing.  (One of them may find itself on to my office desk).  The most rewarding part is to see the enthusiasm of the participants.  After all, there is something primeval about the pouring of molten metal into a container and producing a useable shape.  It’s programmed into the human psyche. It’s cool…….and I’m glad I could be a part of it.

As CEO of Applied Process, most of my work centers around the Austempering process and its application to steel and iron castings, stampings and forgings.  But in my other roles as Proprietor of Joyworks Studio and Adjunct Professor with University of Michigan’s Materials Science and Engineering Department, I enjoy the annual migration of MSE365 students out to Joyworks Studio for a little taste of metal casting “March madness”.  This year a bumper crop of 51 students, Professor Brian Love and various graduate assistants made the journey and left with keeper castings made of either 319 Aluminum or Manganese Bronze.  We use the full-mold or “lost foam” process where the kids sculpt Styrofoams that are hot glued to foam gates fed by fibrous silica downsprues from Rex Materials Group (www.rexmaterials.com ).  The assembled trees are then invested in loose, zircon sand and poured.  Thanks to the assistance of Chris Bixler, Dr. Kathy Hayrynen, Demetri Golematis and Ryan Breneman, most of the castings came out…..some better than others.

Engineers are often perceived as a staid lot, but the designs of these foams and the amount of care taken in their preparation belies that perception.  Precise or downright ugly, these castings will find an honored spot with each of these engineers-to-be and will be displayed as cherished trinkets for many years to come, because metal casting is science, but it's also cool.  I hope I have, once again, achieved my goal of infecting a few of these students with that incurable infliction; the metal casting bug.

Watch for pictures in the Joyworks Studio Gallery.

Chip Keough  

Wow!  51 Students in the UoM MSE365 class, and this week every one of them is going to make a casting at Joyworks.  Today, we reviewed the History of Metal Casting and set the stage for our labs on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Tuesday and Wednesday we’ll be investing the students’ foams and pouring them in 319 Aluminum.  For Thursday we’ve selected 20 patterns that will be assembled onto sprues and coated prior to pouring in 60/40 zinc brass.  Once again this year the students have produced some interesting patterns.  Photos to follow.

Coming up, a UoM MSE senior project investigating a specific aspect of Austempered Ductile Iron.  If I told you the specifics I’d have to kill you.

Visit us often and watch us learn here at Joyworks Studio.

Cheers,

Chip Keough

Here at Joyworks Studio we work on a lot of fun and exciting things.  Sometimes we need a little help.  That was just the case as we are preparing for a University of Michigan laboratory module.  We want to experiment with casting yellow 60/40 brass against a chill but we only need a couple of hundred pounds of the, now expensive, alloy.  Heck, if you want to buy a ton of the stuff…..no problem.  You can buy it at a hundred different places.  But do you think we could buy a few ingots of it?  No way.  That’s when Mike Galvin and the folks at Buck Company came to the rescue.  Buck Company is a great foundry company located just outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania that works in both ferrous and non-ferrous alloys.  They make components in everything from bronze to Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI).  Mr. Galvin, Buck’s Metallurgist / QA Manager, was able to arrange to sell us a small batch of just the right stuff.  Thanks for the help Mike!  It has been a wonderfully “Galvinizing” experience.

If you want to learn more about the folks at Buck Company you can visit them at www.buckcompany.com.  Check ‘em out.

(PS- If you happen to be a distant relative (like I am) of George Taylor, a colonial foundryman, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, then Mike’s the guy to talk to.  He knows all about the George Taylor house in Lehigh County Pennsylvania and is glad to share.  Now I’ve just GOT to go there.