The Spring Industry Celebrates Modern Manufacturing

The Spring industry Celebrates

Manufacturing Day has been described as “a celebration of modern manufacturing meant to inspire the next generation of manufacturers. It is a chance for students to see the diverse career options that are innovative, impactful and challenging.”

Each year, starting from the first Friday of October and throughout the month, the manufacturing sector organizes job fairs, exhibitions, shop floor walkthroughs, seminars and other events for students, educators, parents and community influencers. The day kick-starts a monthlong exhibition of America’s manufacturing prowess.

A variety of companies in the spring industry have been active participants in Manufacturing Day for many years, even in creative ways during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are photos and highlights of some of events held in conjunction with Manufacturing Day 2022.

Materials provided to students for Manufacturing Day at Ace Wire Spring.

Students visit the plant floor at Ace Wire Spring to see how springs are made. Students were given pieces of wire to see if they could make their own springs by hand while visiting Ace Wire Spring.

expandIng mInds

Ace Wire Spring & Form Co., Inc. celebrated and promoted Manufacturing Day on Friday Nov. 4, 2022, by hosting 17 students from City Charter High School, who also belong to the BotsIQ organization, for a presentation and tour of the company’s facility in McKees Rock, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh.

Ace Wire Spring has been a manufacturer of custom compression, extension, torsion springs and wireforms since 1939 and believes in supporting the local community and the education of young people in the field of manufacturing. “We want to help students experience what manufacturing is about,” said Julie A. Bruno, the company’s engineering assistant.

“The students enjoyed a PowerPoint presentation about working at a manufacturing firm like Ace Wire Spring and were given pieces of wire to see if they could make their own springs by hand,” said Bruno. “We explained the many uses of springs in their everyday life. Some of the kids were shocked at all the places you can find springs and learned how a spring manufacturer is an essential business, especially during COVID-19.”

Students were given a tour of the shop floor to see the springs the company makes. Each student was given a little bag to collect their own samples of the springs they watched being made.

Bruno concluded, “The hope is that this event helped expand the minds of the students that visited Ace Wire Spring, and that they saw firsthand the many opportunities for a career in the manufacturing industry.”

Grand Rapids area high school students toured the shop floor at Wolverine Coil Spring to see how springs are manufactured.

communIty engagement

Manufacturing Day is one of several ways that Wolverine Coil Spring (WCS) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, engages its community in the areas of workforce development, industry involvement and student engagement.

WCS hosted about 65 students in total from three different schools (Union High School, Northview High School and the Kent Career Tech Center) over a two-day period. According to Jay Dunwell, WCS president, the students were divided into small groups so the company’s tour guides could easily communicate and interact with the students.

“To keep the students’ interest and attention, we tried to engage their minds and their hands as often as possible,” explained Dunwell. “We highlighted the vast diversity of career opportunities within even a small manufacturing company… from making products in manufacturing operations, to quality, engineering, tooling, maintenance, sales, accounting, HR, planning, customer service. And each of those career paths taps into special skills, talents and passions that the students might possess.”

Dunwell said that students met staff members during the tours who shared their career journeys, often noting how they were more like “rock climbers” than “ladder climbers” as their careers progressed from manufacturing to quality and now to engineering, for example.

They also met multi-generational staff members, which Dunwell says is the ultimate compliment about Wolverine being a good career choice because it means a parent believes enough in Wolverine that they will recommend their child should join the company.

“The hands-on activities included making springs on a CNC wireforming machine, testing parts on a Keyence vision measuring machine, playing with sample parts and their related assemblies, and closing the tour with a debriefing session to ask students for their observations,” said Dunwell.

Dunwell said they also twisted a neon-colored pipe cleaner around a wooden dowel to form torsion, compression and extension springs. Afterward, Dunwell said they quizzed students with, “Where in your world have you ever encountered a torsion spring, compression spring and extension spring?”

The students had drinks and snacks to enjoy during the 10–15-minute debriefing time at the end of the 90-minute tour.

“We heard nice things from the educators who accompanied the students regarding the time our staff members took to carefully explain and show the students what was going on,” concluded Dunwell.

John Kvale, IDC Spring Shipping Department

chIlI Fest

IDC Spring annually celebrates National Manufacturing Day. For the 2022 event they honored the day by hosting a chili cookoff for approximately 60 employees at the company’s Coon Rapids, Minnesota, plant in a newly remodeled area. The menu was chili, cornbread, and dessert.

As the company said on its Facebook page, “We are so thankful for all of our fantastic team members!”

Plan Your 2023 event

Every year, America’s manufacturing sector opens its doors to celebrate Manufacturing Day. The 2023 event will be held Friday, Oct. 6, and throughout the month. For those interested in making things with mind and machines, it is a day that begins a month of inspirational experiences. To plan your 2023 event, visit www.creatorswanted.org/resources. n