Industry Watch: People

METHODS MACHINE TOOLS, INC.
(SUDBURY, MA) . . .
appointed Phil Janiszewski as marketing manager. He previously spent seven years as marketing manager at Koma Precision, Inc. (East Windsor, CT), a supplier of rotary tables, angle heads, and live tooling, where he managed all areas of marketing from database design, advertising, brochure/catalog design, to web site design and tradeshow layout/coordination. Before his marketing career, Janiszewski worked in outside sales for fabrication and machining services, metal stamping and injection molding equipment, EDM machinery, and high speed vertical machining centers. He brings over thirty years of experience in the manufacturing, machine tool and tool accessories business. www.methodsmachine.com

ADVANCED MACHINE & ENGINEERING CO. (ROCKFORD, IL) . . .
promoted Christian Schedler to product manager in the Speedcut Saw Technology Division that, during the last two years, has invested in new production and measuring equipment and concentrated heavily on R&D and saw blade innovations to improve the tool life of carbide- and cermet-tipped circular saw blades. In his new role, Schedler will oversee P&L responsibility for the division, including its sales, application engineering, product management and project management functions.

His career includes R&D, engineering and product manufacturing with broad assembly and service experience on machine tools. He knows the market?s needs for productivity improvements. Prior to this he worked in service as a global service representative for a German machine tool company and as a designer of carbide saws at AME.

Advanced Machine & Engineering serves the machine tool industry with spindle interface components, workholding devices and (through sister company Hennig) machine enclosures, chip removal and filtration systems; the fluid power/safety market with cylinder rod locks and safety catcher devices; and the production saw market with carbide saw machines and blade products. www.ame.com

LINCOLN ELECTRIC HOLDINGS, INC. (CLEVELAND, OH) . . .
named Richard J. Seif as senior vice president of global marketing and product development, responsible for adding the direction of international product strategy and development programs in market regions around the world to his current global marketing and automation strategy duties. He joined Lincoln in 1971 as a technical sales representative. During his 39 years, Seif has held several key sales and executive management positions, including vice president, marketing; president and chief executive officer of Lincoln Electric Canada; and vice president, sales and marketing U.S.A. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and an MBA in marketing from Michigan State University.

Lincoln Electric is a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of arc welding products, robotic arc-welding systems, plasma and oxyfuel cutting equipment, and has a leading global position in the brazing and soldering alloys market. www.lincolnelectric.com

BYSTRONIC INC. (HAUPPAUGE, NY) . . .
added Dean Arneson as a sales engineer for Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. He brings over thirty years of experience in metal fabricating as a manufacturing engineer and sales engineer, and holds a bachelors degree in manufacturing engineering technology from St. Cloud State University. The company also hired Robert Sales as a sales engineer for Ontario. He brings over 14 years of experience in the manufacturing industry, with seven years dedicated to the machine tool and metal fabricating industry.

Bystronic provides innovative laser cutting, waterjet cutting and press brake systems, system software and comprehensive customer training and support. www.bystronicusa.com

GREENERD PRESS & MACHINE CO., INC. (NASHUA, NH) . . .
president and CEO Tim Dining introduced president Barack Obama before an audience of 1,600 people at Nashua?s North High School Auditorium on February 2 in a nationally televised event that was the second Town Meeting Style Forum that the president has held since he made his State of the Union Address in January. At the forum, he focused on the U.S. economy, job growth, and assistance to small businesses.

The high profile event, attended by Nashua area business owners, local citizens, and students commenced with the introduction by Dining, who struck a chord with many in the audience when he called for the need for constructive economic policies and investment incentives for small U.S. businesses. ?It is a fact that small businesses provide a large percentage of our employment in the U.S., not to mention innovation,? he remarked. ?The owners of these small businesses need the confidence and incentives to continue to invest in their enterprises.?

?It was a great honor to have welcomed the president,? said Dining after the event. ?I am pleased that he has proposed incentives that will help foster innovation and the investment that is essential for our country?s manufacturers.? As chairman of the board of advisors for the New Hampshire Small Business Development Center (NH SBDC) and a director of The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT; McLean, VA), Dining is keenly aware of the need to focus on domestic manufacturing as a primary driver for our economic recovery.

Greenerd recently built and shipped three separate orders for unique, large-sized hydraulic presses ranging in capacity from 330 tons to 1,000 tons for various applications. The presses were all designed and built in the company?s Nashua factory and were ordered by three U.S.-based manufacturers. www.greenerd.com

RACINE METAL-FAB (RACINE, WI) . . .
named Scott Lucas president and chief operating officer to provide leadership in strategic planning, business development, branding, lean engineering, manufacturing and team development at the company. He formerly served as a division president at Dorner Manufacturing Corporation (Hartland, WI) for 15 years and before that in senior management at Enerpac (Milwaukee, WI) for 18 years.

Racine Metal-Fab is a premium supplier of custom fabricated metal. Since 1968, the company has served clients through its commitment to innovative design, high quality production and supportive customer service for a variety of industrial applications. www.rm-f.com

HARCO METAL PRODUCTS (TEMPE, AZ) . . .
appointed Polonie Gomez as quality manager to further improve manufacturing efforts in support of customer critical requirements at their Tempe facility. He brings high-level experience in total quality management, statistical process control, root cause and corrective action, six sigma and PFMEA to the team. He also has a strong quality background in the area of AS9000 and AS9100 principles, guiding several major companies to certification in both ISO and AS. Harco is a leader in tube fabrication that supplies fabricated tubular design, components, and assemblies. www.WeBendTube.com

T&H LEMONT (COUNTRYSIDE, IL) . . .
added Martin W. Byrne as manager of domestic sales and marketing, reporting to company president John Hillis and responsible for formulating marketing and sales strategies for tooling, equipment and operational services for the sales team and organization. He brings over 30 years experience in sales to the pipe, tube and roll form industries, including key positions at Roll Kraft (Mentor, OH) and TESGO (North Royalton, OH). Byrne is a graduate of Meyer University with a degree in marketing.

T&H Lemont, a leading supplier of equipment, tooling and operational services to the pipe, tube and roll form industries, is one of forty companies making up the Inductotherm Group. www.thlemont.com

UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION (PITTSBURGH, PA) . . .
named Robert J. Beltz as vice president-commercial for Europe. He succeeds Peter J. Alvarado, who concluded his assignment in Europe and returns to the U.S. to a role to be announced in the near future. Beltz reports to George F. Babcoke, senior vice president of European operations and president of U. S. Steel Kosice, and assumes responsibility for all commercial activity related to European operations. He joined the company in 1990 as a management associate in accounting and finance and advanced through increasingly responsible positions over the next 14 years, including managerial roles in automotive sales and marketing. He is a native of Canonsburg, PA, and graduated from Duquesne University with a bachelor's degree in accounting. He earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Michigan-Flint. Beltz and his wife Rebecca will relocate to the Slovak Republic and be based at U. S. Steel Kosice.

Robert Y. Kopf III was appointed general manager of North American flat-rolled marketing, succeeding Beltz. He will report to senior vice president of north american flat-roll operations Michael S. Williams and will oversee industry market strategies, product mix distribution and pricing for flat-rolled operations in the U.S. and Canada. A native of Pittsburgh, he joined U. S. Steel in 1988 as a management associate in the sales organization and progressed through a series of increasingly responsible sales, customer service and marketing management positions. Kopf graduated from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor's degree in communication. He is a member of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and currently serves as chairman of the Steel Packaging Council, an AISI Steel Market Development Institute committee. He is also a member of the Canned Food Alliance's executive committee. Kopf will continue to be based at the corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh.

William L. Reder advanced to general manager of sales to succeed Kopf. He will report to vice president of sales Joseph R. Scherrbaum, Jr. and be responsible for sales activities related to North American flat-rolled products customers in the appliance, electrical, construction, sheet converter, tin and container markets. He will also oversee semi-finished product sales as well as sales of North American flat-rolled products outside the U.S.
His career began in 1988 as a management associate in sales and he advanced through management roles in the company's sales and marketing organizations. Reder, who is also a native of Pittsburgh, earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Pittsburgh and will also be based at the Pittsburgh headquarters. www.ussteel.com

FERALLOY CORPORATION (CHICAGO, IL) . . .
promoted Carlos Rodríguez Borjas to executive vice president and chief operating officer. He previously served during the past 11 years as general director of Acero Prime S. de R.L. de C.V (Toluca, Mexico), a joint venture with Feralloy. Arturo Marroquín, who has nine years of experience at Acero Prime as operations manager, will assume the general director role.

Feralloy Corporation, a subsidiary of Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (Los Angeles, CA), operates six coil processing and distribution plants throughout the U.S., along with seven joint venture facilities, including three processing and logistics operations of Acero Prime in México that provide value-added processing to hot rolled, hot rolled pickled, cold rolled and coated sheet coils for manufacturing plants and steel producers. www.ferralloy.com

CLIFFORD-JACOBS FORGING COMPANY (CHAMPAIGN, IL) . . .
hired Lori Brown to manage internal sales. She is a 16-year veteran in sales and marketing, most recently as sales manager for the American Sport Education Program (ASEP), a division of Human Kinetics. ?With her experience in the technology, publishing and healthcare fields, we?re excited to have her jump right into the mix,? says Jason Ray, vice president of sales of the IMT Forging Group (Ingersoll, ON). Brown, a Parkland College alum, lives in Mahomet with her family and is a member of the Alzheimer?s Association Fundraising Committee.

Since 1919, Clifford-Jacobs Forging Company has been a maker of high-quality, reliable forgings with a broad range of services, including engineering, heat treating, machining, painting, assembly, and turnkey solutions for custom forgings. www.clifford-jacobs.com

HYDRO METAL MARKETS NORTH AMERICA (LINTHICUM, MD) . . .
added Greg Lea to its commercial team as regional sales and technical manager for the Midwest region. He comes to Hydro after operating his own consulting firm in the metals industry. Lea previously served as general manager of the MI Metals (Smyrna, TN) extrusion plant, a customer technical service manager for Alcan's (Montreal, QC) Ingot Sales Group, and held various metallurgical and engineering positions with the Werner Company (Greenville, PA). He lives with his wife and two daughters in Poland, OH.

The Metal Market unit of Norsk Hydro provides aluminum to manufacturers in the Americas. The company is the world?s third-largest aluminum supplier, the largest single manufacturer of primary metal and extruded aluminum products in Europe, and a leader in delivering innovative light metal solutions to the automotive and building industries worldwide. In North America, Hydro provides supply sourcing, extrusion, finishing, and fabrication of aluminum components, as well as engineering and contract manufacturing services for a variety of industries. www.hydro.com/northamerica

LABORATORY TESTING INC. (HATFIELD, PA) . . .
added Brandon McVaugh as the customer service supervisor, a new position that provides customer support services and oversees all operations in the customer service department, which prepares quotes, provides information on testing, calibration and machining services, and coordinates orders that will be processed. McVaugh, a third-generation family member, previously held positions in the company?s machine shop and nondestructive testing department while earning his bachelor?s degree in business from Delaware Valley College. He was employed by The Vanguard Group (Valley Forge, PA) for the past five years and held supervisory positions.

LTI specializes in materials testing, nondestructive testing, failure analysis, NIST-traceable calibration services and specimen machining. The laboratory is accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 by PRI/Nadcap and A2LA, which also complies with ISO 9001 and ISO 13485. Mechanical, chemical, metallurgical and nondestructive testing services are performed on metals, alloys, plastics and other materials. Chemical analysis is also available for powdered metals, ores, ferroalloys, composites, ceramics, aerospace materials and nuclear materials. Dimensional, pressure, force, torque, mass & vacuum calibration services are provided. Field calibration, repairs and new instruments and parts are available. Information on LTI services and accreditations is available at. www.labtesting.com

ASTRAEUS WIND ENERGY INC. (LANSING, MI) . . .
received a $7 million grant to develop a revolutionary wind hub machining cell for high-volume manufacturing, as well as pursue development of carbon-fiber turbine blades. The new venture of MAG Industrial Automation Systems (Hebron, KY) and Dowding Machining LLC (Eaton Rapids, MI) was one of only five winners chosen from 80 applicants to receive the clean energy grants from the State of Michigan, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The proprietary machining system will be developed by MAG and installed at the Astraeus facility in Eaton Rapids. Plans call for the system to be in production late 2010.

"This is the first step in our strategic plan to turn this industry on its head by mass producing wind turbine components more efficiently than ever thought possible," said Jeff Metts, president of Astraeus. "We intend to transform the manufacturing cost and throughput for turbine components to make wind energy cost competitive with fossil fuel. This grant will help us reach one of the key goals of that transformation." The unique hub machining cell will increase production rates from the current standard of one per day to as many as five per day, Metts explained, cutting machining times from 20-24 hours per part to just over four hours.

Astraeus is also closing in on its goal to produce carbon fiber turbine blades, based on a unique new design to be licensed from a major wind turbine component manufacturer. The company is negotiating with Dow Chemical Company as well to produce a new resin that will complement the lightweight, high strength characteristics of carbon fiber. Key to the manufacturing process is a new automated lay-up and molding system developed by MAG. The new Rapid Material Placement System (RMPS) brings integrated manufacturing, with automation and repeatable process control, to wind blade fabrication, a process that has historically been manual, resulting in blades imperfections and weight variations, causing higher warranty and replacement costs.

"Wind energy is a technology in transition," said Roger Cope, president of the Strategic Business Development Group of MAG. "Manufacturing output for wind energy components is on a plateau right now, limited by available technology developed during the industry's infancy, resulting in higher costs per megawatt. Our goal through Astraeus is to use new ideas, new materials and new automation technology to bring the cost for wind energy megawatts into parity with coal and nuclear power." www.mag-ias.com

BUNTING® MAGNETICS CO. (NEWTON, KS) . . .
named Bob Crossken as the national sales manager responsible for managing a nationwide direct sales team as well as a network of distributors and sales representatives, including international sales in Canada and Mexico. Based in New Jersey, he will maintain oversight of his territory in the New England region. Crossken has been part of the Bunting team since 1964 and has served in a variety of roles, including sales engineer, regional sales manager and senior district sales manager. Over those 46 years, the only interruption in his time with the company was when he served in the U.S. Army for two years, from 1964-66.

Bunting manufactures magnetic assemblies and equipment, including a broad range of magnetic materials and components, magnetic separation systems, material handling equipment, magnetic printing cylinders, flexible dies and metal detection equipment. www.buntingmagnetics.com

TUBELITE INC. (WALKER, MI) . . .
hired Steve Wilkening as an engineering manager to manage the engineering and product development staff, expand the company's architectural aluminum products nationwide, and report to company president Ken Werbowy. He sees great opportunity for recycled material content and thermal performance systems, given the industry's overall movement toward green and energy-efficient buildings. Along with thermal performance, he will aid the company in its product development and verification of hurricane-resistant and blast-mitigating systems.

Wilkening draws from a 25-year career in engineering fenestration, entrances and related building products. Most recently, he worked as the vice president of engineering for Caldwell Manufacturing Company (Rochester, NY). Prior to that he served as director of engineering and product development for Weather Shield Manufacturing Inc. (Medford, WI); SNE Enterprises Inc. (Mosinee, WI); and Peachtree Windows and Doors (Atlanta, GA). Prior to this, he worked for 14 years at residential building products manufacturer ODL, Inc. (Zeeland, MI).

Wilkening grew up in Grand Rapids and earned his bachelor's in mechanical engineering from nearby Valparaiso University. He earned a master's in management from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids and gained his registration as a professional engineer in the state of Michigan. He is a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Established in 1945, Tubelite became a part of Apogee Enterprises, Inc. in December 2007. The company headquarters, distribution, warehousing and assembly operations are in Walker. An additional facility in Reed City, MI, houses the company's aluminum extrusion operation. www.tubeliteinc.com