Wendell August Forge in Grove City,
PA produces hand-wrought ornamental metal-ware, including approximately 100,000
Christmas tree ornaments per year. This
forging process forces a sheet metal blank against a die surface using multiple
hammer blows, transferring the image to the metal blank. Additional operations are used to trim,
deburr, polish, and package the ornament.
The team will develop an automated
feeding process for the sheet metal blank material as well as a computer
controlled mechanism to automatically stamp the Wendell August logo and the
year of manufacture on the back of the ornament. Wendell August eventually wants to develop a
fully automated production machine.