Events 
6 Comments Good to See My Faithful Friends
Today was the annual Great Designs in Steel 2010 event.
I have much to say about this day long event in a day or two …
It was fun seeing my faithful friends and fans of my former MetalForming magazine column and this blog. I genuinely had a great time chatting with everyone.
In particular, I have been thinking of my old pal Gary. Much to my surprise, he was there AND recognized me after all this time.
I had a side bet with my die guy pal Bob that Dan Grieshaber would rock the house today. He did not disappoint. Dan’s presentation was by far the best of the day. I told him afterwards it was fabulous. Now, Bob owes me lunch.
The event organizers did a great job of keeping the program on-time. It finished three minutes early. To me, that is incredible.
Most of the presentations, in my opinion, were horrifically delivered. The message was not clear or crisp. And Dan’s presentation aside, I could not read a single slide because I can’t read light blue 12 point font on a bright white background from 40 yards without a sniper scope and dark sunglasses.
Seriously.
All in all it was good. And connecting with the faithful few made it even sweeter.
Too bad I missed it. I just love a good eye chart. Guess they missed Guy’s 10,20,30 rules.
I think you would have enjoyed it, Eric.
Grieshaber kicked ass … he really stole the show. If you and I presented today, it would have been a great show.
And yes, the rest were clueless on the PowerPoint aspect and most read from a script. The ones that did not read from a script, read the slides.
One presenter could not answer a single question about his content. I was really disappointed as far as that goes.
The overall message was simple to me: if you want better fuel economy (and I am not so sure the market does at $3 a gallon), then your vehicle development process will take longer, dies will cost more, and you are going to pay more for the long-awaited car or truck as a consequence to reducing mass.
I mean, to do what they talked about by 2020, the damn dies are going to look like they did 40 years ago with heavy casting construction and fully inserted punch openings, trim lines, and flange breaklines.
And forget about three or four dies. Better add one or two more for restrike.
I see bad things coming … more on this rant in a post in a day or two.
“The overall message was simple to me: if you want better fuel economy (and I am not so sure the market does at $3 a gallon), then your vehicle development process will take longer, dies will cost more, and you are going to pay more for the long-awaited car or truck as a consequence to reducing mass.”
This means all you need is time and money to get to the goal. Necessary, yes, but not sufficient. You forgot one of the keys: the product/process needs to be intelligently designed by people who have more than a clue of how to tie everything together.
The challenge will become getting the knowledgeable people capable, interested, motivated, and available to do the job.
hi Danny,
That is a great point you made. The skill and talent level in both the product design community and the die engineering community has been significantly diluted in the past 20 years. We barely have the right competencies now. The next 10 or 20 years will present significant challenges to the automotive industry.
Gentlemen (and I use the term loosely)–this is an interesting and purposeful discussion that I may move to MetalForming, with your approval. What say you?
-brad
Brad Kuvin reads DieGuy AND has a cool looking Gravatar?
Thanks Brad!! That means alot!!
This discussion is continued in the next post: http://www.dieguy.com/2010/05/11/great-steel-designs-greater-problems/stephens/
I am just about to blog on individual presentations and the negative impact on the die industry coming over the next decade and beyond from what I call Super Steel (extreme high strength steels).
I have no issues whatsoever with you using / referencing blog content from DieGuy.com. Hell, I would even blog FOR MetalForming Magazine.