A $4.4 million investment in metal casting, with Dr. Paul Lynch

Dr. Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State Behrend, talks with Dr. Paul C. Lynch, associate professor of industrial engineering, about a three-year, $4.4 million partnership with the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation. Originally recorded on July 26, 2024.

Episode Transcript

Ralph Ford (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome to the show.
I'm Dr Ralph Ford, chancellorof Penn State B, and you are
listening to Barron Talks.
My guest today is one of ourfaculty members, d Paul Lynch.
Paul is an Associate Professorof Industrial Engineering.
Welcome to the show, Paul.
Thanks for being here.
Well, I'm going to read a littlebit about your background.

(00:21):
I hope we make you blush alittle bit with all the great
things that you're doing,because you have recently landed
a very significant grant.
Paul is the lead researcher ona $4.4 million partnership with
the Institute for AdvancedComposites Manufacturing
Innovation.
And when you put all thoseletters together, you get IACME,
so we'll call it IACME, Again,institute for Advanced

(00:44):
Composites Manufacturing.
And in partnership with the USDepartment of Defense, you are
planning to we're going to gointo a lot more detail create a
workforce development programs,including manufacturing boot
camps that will support the USmetal casting and forging
industries.
And a little bit about yourbackground.
You hold a bachelor's, amaster's and a PhD, all in

(01:06):
industrial engineering, all fromPenn State University.
Your research is on metalcasting materials and
manufacturing.
You've won some really niceawards here at Penn State
Behrend the Council of Fellows,excellence in Outreach Award,
the Excellence in Teaching Awardand the Guy Wilson Award for
Excellence in Academic Advising.
By the way, that's three out ofthe four major faculty awards

(01:29):
we give here, so that'sincredible.
You're spending the summeractually.
I know you're here on campustoday, but you've been at Eglin
Air Force Base participating ina research fellowship program
your seventh researchcollaboration with the US Air
Force.
You know them well.
Again, welcome, so you knowreally impressive background.
So let's just start from thebeginning.

(01:51):
You were involved in materialscience, metal casting.
Tell everyone what's this about.
What interested you, you know,what is it that you like to
focus on?

Paul Lynch (02:03):
Yeah, so specifically again, thank you,
Ralph for having me here today.
This means a lot, this talk tome.
So specifically, you know kindof question is what sparked my
interest in this?
I'm going to go back to how Igrew up.
So my brother and I arefirst-generation immediate
family college graduates and wegrew up in a hardworking

(02:25):
blue-collar community in theanthracite coal region of
Pennsylvania, in SchuylkillCounty, Gordon, where we grew up
.
The borough where we grew upwas approximately 700 people.
Our father was a mechanic, mymother is a beautician, so the
local manufacturing plants theywere truly the economic engine
for the region, for these smallcoal towns.

(02:45):
And although there were somemore, I remember three main
manufacturers growing up in ourimmediate area.
One was a lumber manufacturer,one was an envelope manufacturer
and we had a large localfoundry, a metal caster, and
really that foundry probably hadover 400 employees.
They were good, paying jobswith healthcare training for the

(03:07):
employees, their familysustaining jobs and it seemed
like somebody from every familyin the region worked there and
it truly was the anchor for theregion and it really helped
families realize the Americandream and, interestingly, my
father being a mechanic andhaving a mechanic shop, he
actually would come home and hecould actually tell you when the
local foundry was doing reallywell and maybe when they weren't

(03:31):
doing so well, just through hisbusiness, as you know, as a
service business, as a mechanic.
So the service businesses inour region everything from the
pizza shops to the auto repairshops, to the car dealers, to
dentists, Manufacturing drovethat region and the service
businesses.
So over time, as employmentnumbers and these good paying
jobs dwindled in our region,families started to struggle,

(03:53):
service businesses started todisappear and society truly
started to fall apart.
We even, you know, started tohave a lot of drug problems and
I knew from a very young age howimportant manufacturing was to
our economy, our society ingeneral and our national defense
.
So growing up in that regionand understanding that.
Secondly, when I was a studentin industrial manufacturing

(04:14):
engineering at Penn State, myeventual graduate school advisor
, Dr Bob Voigt, was ametallurgist and he was a
Foundry Educational Foundationkey professor.
So Penn State University Parkis a certified Foundry
Educational Foundation school.
So we were exposed to design,manufacturing and finishing the
actual castings right there inthe lab on campus.

(04:34):
So it truly captured myinterest.
And then, when I decided to goon to graduate school, I worked
on a professor Voight who's ametallurgist, so my master's and
PhD work was all metalmanufacturing, material science,
metallurgy and I really reallyworked on aluminum and steel.
So that's really my backgroundand how I got involved in, you

(04:55):
know, metals and metalmanufacturing.

Ralph Ford (04:57):
I love hearing that background.
I mean, it's like so many wehear, not only in Pennsylvania
but Midwest, all throughout thecountry.
By the way, my father worked ina manufacturing plant for 40
years of his life and so,although they managed to stay in
business the whole time but sovery familiar with these stories

(05:28):
and interesting to hear how youknow it's and I think this is
what we're going to talk about.
This is what drives you as wellto continue to make sure that
this industry and theseopportunities remain, because
they really do drive the economyin so many ways.
So I appreciate you sharingthat.
So you saw that growing up abig part of your life.
You go to Penn State.
You see this.
Did you always know you wantedto be an academic or did you
think you wanted to go intoindustry?
Industry what was the path tobeing a professor?

Paul Lynch (05:46):
o really interesting .
It's a great question, Ralph.
I worked for a great company.
Universal forest productsactually had a location in my
small little borough I grew upin, so you know I learned
working for them out of mybachelor's degree.
I learned a tremendous amount.
All right, as an undergraduatestudent I worked as an intern in
their design departmentdesigning roof trusses while I

(06:08):
was in college and then that wasmore of a civil engineering
type internship and after Igraduated I was hired full-time
as a regional productionengineer and I received
top-notch training by thecompany and I was able to go
across the United States and beexposed to all sorts of capital
projects.
And it was just.
It was an excellent experience.

(06:29):
But see, going back when I wasa student at Penn State, I
worked as a tutor and I alsoworked as an undergraduate
teaching intern and I missed theteaching piece and I had an
opportunity after, you know,about a year back full-time for
Universal.
Again, I had worked for thecompany as I was in college as
an intern, I had an opportunityto go back to college on a

(06:51):
teaching assistantship whichallowed me to teach
manufacturing labs.
I was able to conduct metalsresearch and complete my
classwork towards a master'sdegree, and Penn State funded
that, and with that, I know Ilove the teaching piece of it
and I love teaching themanufacturing lab.
So, after completing thatmaster's degree, some of the

(07:12):
faculty spoke to me, sat downand spoke to me about going on
for a PhD, and I eventually didit.
So that was the pathway.
Why, though?
That was the pathway to gettinga faculty position where I
could do what I love teaching,advising, working on research,
industry projects, basicallytaking that next generation,
educating them, working directlywith industry and pushing our

(07:35):
manufacturing forward, andthat's how I got there.

Ralph Ford (07:37):
And it's really important.
You wanted to do that, but alsosomeone tapped you on the
shoulder which was your facultymembers and they said, hey, we
see some promise there.
So I love hearing that thatpart of the story too and, as
the record shows, you've wonsome really important teaching
awards and you have a greatreputation as a very excellent
uh teaching faculty member here.
So let's talk a little bitabout your path to Behrend,

(08:00):
though, and I you know all fulldisclosure.
I think I was director of theengineering school and we hired
you, so remember some of those.
But you came here.
You ended up here at Behrend in2015.
And you know how did?
How did that work?
Why did you choose to come here?
And you know what.
What makes this the place foryou?

Paul Lynch (08:18):
Yeah, it's, it's a wow.
We're going to start here.
In the fall we're going tostart year 10.
Year 10, wow.
So I could go on for a longtime on this one.
So, as we know from talkingtoday, I work in manufacturing
and I'm really passionate aboutworking directly with industry
partners and getting ourstudents working in
manufacturing while they're inschool, right to try to keep

(08:38):
American manufacturing strongand help our local economies
thrive.
So really, I was always taughtthere's three ways for our local
economy and our society totruly build wealth you make it,
which is manufacture it, youmine it or you grow it.
Erie and northwesternPennsylvania is the make it.
I was once told by one of mycolleagues, and I believe this

(09:02):
was actually on my interview.
He said to me Paul, if itcannot be made in Erie,
pennsylvania, it can't be madeanywhere.
And now, as I just said, I'mgoing on year 10.
That is a fact.
So for me, for the research Ido on top of that, working
directly with our metalmanufacturers and my teaching

(09:25):
and advising I mean Behrendallows me to bring everything
together.

Ralph Ford (09:29):
It's great to hear that it's a fit like that.
Sorry I interrupted.
Keep going.

Paul Lynch (09:33):
Yeah, it allows me to bring together my research
with the industry, with thestudents, and ultimately
accomplish that goal that Italked about right Getting that
next generation of workers intothe industry, get the newest
practices in the industry andintroduce the technologies that
we need to keep ourmanufacturing strong and society
strong right in the Erie region.

(09:55):
So, in addition, I think onething that's really important
that I want to mention is theway Behrend works with industry.
It's very unique for a ResearchI institution.
The way Behrend works withindustry.
It's very unique for a Research1 institution.
It's truly, in my opinion,second to none, because the open
lab allows us, allows me and mystudents, to work side by side
with local industry and you know, just to give one example, the

(10:18):
local Northwestern PennsylvaniaAmerican Founders Society
chapter, along with a long listof other associations, a lot of
industry partners.
They have been nothing butsupportive and helped us
accomplish a great deal in nineyears.
You know, and we're going tocontinue to push that forward.
But again, I can't stressenough how special Behrend is in
the way, as a research oneinstitution, that we work with

(10:40):
industry and that is that is.
That is huge.

Ralph Ford (10:43):
You know really great observations.
I didn't grow up in this area.
I grew up in New York State.
I spent my graduate work timein Arizona, worked for industry,
for IBM, so a very differentone.
But your point about the abilityand the mindset of people in
Western PA to make things, it'samazing to me.
It's part of the culture and youknow I see kids come here and

(11:06):
they go to the InnovationCommons.
Whatever it is, their abilityand thought process, it really
is different than you see in alot of places in the country and
it's super, super important andthe idea.
You know, one of the thingsthat you talked about was our
connection with the outsideworld, and that's something that

(11:30):
we never want to take forgranted.
But what's interesting to me isthat you know you have such
deep connections with placeslike American Foundry Society.
You know I'm looking at mystats here.
They support more than 30,000jobs in Pennsylvania, generate
6.7 billion in economic input,and where I'm going with this is
, you know you can see peoplesaying, oh, metal casting
forging sounds like an oldtechnology, but let's talk about

(11:53):
that because I don't think itis.
So you know, what do yourstudents think about this and
how do you get them involved andtalk about the importance of
this industry and where it'sgoing?

Paul Lynch (12:02):
So is forging and casting?
Is it on the radar for everystudent?
No.
However, as I said, our region,where we are, a large amount of
our students have parents,grandparents, aunts, uncles,
right that have had a long andprosperous career in
manufacturing.
So manufacturing is not a dirtyword to our students, nope.

(12:23):
And also we have a significantnumber of first-generation
college students here and I'mproud of that because I see a
lot of myself in these studentsand they understand the value of
hard work and they understandthe importance of manufacturing
to our local economy, society asa whole and our national

(12:43):
security.
And kind of to end that piece ofit about getting students
involved, I'll never forget thefirst American Founders Society
meeting that I attended here inNorthwestern Pennsylvania and we
sat down and you know we weretalking about some of the things
that you know manufacturing atone time, you know, did we
decade ago, two decades agomaybe, have people at a
different image of it?

(13:04):
We sat down and I said you knowwhat we need to do.
Number one, we need to all worktogether and have a strong
message.
And number two, what I needfrom all of you is to offer our
students an internship.
I say give them an opportunity.
And now, after nine years ofdoing that, we have something
very special moving forward.
We have a pipeline of peoplegoing into the industry.

(13:26):
We have students every monthgoing out to the local Founders
Society, dinners, meeting withthe folks.
We have our students competingat the national level.
People know through theAmerican Founders Society where
Penn State Behrend is.
We took home one of the grandprizes again this year at the
Steel Founders Competition outin Milwaukee.
Congratulations, but that tooka lot of work, people working

(13:48):
together.
But what did it come back to?
Giving students an opportunity.

Ralph Ford (13:52):
And you personally know these companies and you get
them to campus and talk aboutour career affairs.
I mean, I've seen it in action.
You help students and you helpthem connect to the companies.

Paul Lynch (14:05):
Yeah, I mean that's huge to kind of keep that
constant back and forth in termsof company calls.
I get them in touch with careerservices, we work together, we
get them in and we try to makesure we're placing our students.
And that is huge.
And the other thing that's veryimportant is very good
communication and transparency.
For instance, every month atthe local Northwestern

(14:25):
Pennsylvania chapter meeting,shannon Sweeney and I, my
colleague Shannon Sweeney and I,we're the education folks on
the board they get a full reportof what's going on in
manufacturing and metal casting,you know, at Penn State Behrend
, and that is very important.

Ralph Ford (14:39):
So, Paul, I'd like to jump into you know some
future-looking things and firstof all, I'll start with some of
the challenges thatmanufacturing industries are
facing.
You know, nearly one-fourth ofthe manufacturing workforce is
55 or older.
By 2030, we estimate that thereare going to be 2 million
unfilled manufacturing jobs inthe US.
But you're working with thisorganization called IACME and we

(15:01):
talked earlier about this verysignificant grant that you got
$4.4 million and it's one of 17manufacturing US institutes that
plans to address this.
So why don't you step usthrough?
You know what's the challengeright now.
Let's talk about your grant,what you're planning to do,
what's your future plan here,with all that's going on with

(15:21):
this very ambitious initiative?

Paul Lynch (15:25):
I'm going to start with the challenge, so that you
mentioned Ralph, between now andyou know, 2028, our defense
National Defense Industrial Base.
You know they're saying they'regoing to need at least 122,000,
you know additionalshipbuilders, engineers,
manufacturers and other DODsupport roles.

(15:45):
That's a lot of people, that'sa lot.
That's a lot of people.
And you know, failure to meetthese needs, you know, and to
get our trades and our tradeskill sets back up in this base
metals industry really creates avulnerability right for us.
So it's extremely important.
How are we going to address it?
It's interesting as this pastyear I've spent a lot of time

(16:11):
traveling across this countrywith IACME, speaking, sitting
down with groups and even withour local groups here in Erie,
and the thing that we decidedwas with IACME is we're going to
train from K to gray.
That's how we're going to dothis.
So, starting with K-12activities, we're actually
learning from research that asyoung as five years old kids are

(16:34):
already thinking about whatthey like, what they might want
to study in school and careers.
So we've already, you know,launched the K k12 component.
So we're starting there.
As we go up, we're calling it atiered curriculum and a tiered
approach to this.
So I just described k12.

(16:56):
We have a level one which isreally an introduction.
All right that that is onlinecomponent and it also is a
hands-on boot camp component,but it's really introductory 18
and up, just really introducingfolks all right to the basics.
After that and in development,that's where we are right now is

(17:16):
level one.
There's a level two and levelthree, and level two and level
three is advanced right withtargeted topics,
company-specific and newtechnology integration.
That will also have online andboot camp components.
Eventually, and maybe the mostimportant piece of it, is

(17:37):
rebuilding both on thegovernment side and the
industrial side apprenticeships.
So in Pennsylvania right now,along with our Penn State team,
iacme and another party, thirdparty Jobs for the Future, they
are right now, as we're sittinghere talking, they're already
working directly withmanufacturers right here in our

(17:58):
region to jumpstart theirapprenticeships and in our
internship programs.
So that is the tiered approachthat we're taking to try to
address this.
Now the last part of yourquestion.
You know what?
What's this, what's the wholepiece going to kind of kind of
look like and how do we get here?

(18:19):
Well, as I said earlier aboutthe listening sessions, we sat
down with the local metalmanufacturing leaders here at
least three times.
The number one takeaway everysingle time was they need
workforce development was numberone right across the board
every time.
And that's what this grant thatyou described earlier, this
metal grant, that's exactly whatthis grant slash contract is

(18:42):
after.
So where are we in kind of thistiered system of addressing
this?
Well, we've already launchedthe K-12 component.
About 1,400 people came throughthe STEAM Fair on campus here
in February.
In the past month we've hadfive medal sessions, hands-on
activities as part of Collegefor Kids here on campus.

(19:03):
About 100 students have alreadygone through it.
Next week we'll wrap up withtwo more sessions, so we'll have
done seven sessions this summerfor K-12.
As we're working through thecurriculum piece of that, and as
soon as we get the metalcasting, the melting
capabilities here on campus,we'll begin offering a four-day
metal level one boot camp for 18and above here in northwestern

(19:28):
Pennsylvania.
Wow.
So, and also the metal level,we're calling level one the
basic online curriculum that'salready launched.
It launched July 15thth andanyone can sign up to take it
and earn a credly badge fortheir completion.
Um, it's about eight and a halfhours of training.
It's 13 modules.
It's free to anyone.
You go to metal for americaorgand they can sign up and already

(19:52):
do the level one training andit'll take them right to Penn
State Behrend training withIACME and all the work you're
doing.
You got it, metalforamericaorg.

Ralph Ford (20:01):
Metal For America.
Yep Fell out four or the numberfour.

Paul Lynch (20:06):
So Metal as in M-E-T-A-L-F-O-R-Americaorg.

Ralph Ford (20:12):
Okay.

Paul Lynch (20:13):
Yep.

Ralph Ford (20:13):
Because I think some of our listeners who are going
to hear this are in thatindustry and they're going to
want to know where to go.
Yep, and they can also alwaysreach out to you.
I hate to put the burden on you, but metalforamericaorg.

Paul Lynch (20:25):
Yeah, so that's already level one.
You know K-12 is already goingon.
Level one's already launchedonline our beta version of it,
mm-hmm, and we're just about tooffer the second beta level one
boot camp in August atUniversity Park.
So now the last piece of thatis level two and level three and
they're coming down thepipeline but they're going to be

(20:47):
more focused for specificcompany needs and advanced
technologies.
And, as I said to end here,iacme and with us, with Penn
State and with Jobs for theFuture, they're already working
with local manufacturers tojumpstart these apprenticeship
programs.
The Department of Defense saidyou know we need to do this, we
need to fly the airplane whilewe build it.
So we've been working hard.

Ralph Ford (21:08):
Well, a lot of really great things, and I want
to go back and just ask a coupleextra questions about what you
said there.
So when you talk about anapprentice program and then in
the same breath you said we needan apprentice, an internship,
so what is going to define anapprentice program versus an
internship?
So can you explain to ouraudience what you're thinking
about in terms of this need forapprentices?

Paul Lynch (21:30):
So if we go back, let's go back to maybe the 1970s
.
So the Department of Labor hasa list of apprenticeships.
Requirements which are at thatpoint are called registered
apprenticeships.
So we have folks within IACMEthat are literally experts on
apprenticeships that we'reworking with and also with jobs

(21:51):
for the future, future andcompanies.
You know, when folks retiredthey had the apprentice right,
they had people that werelearning, that trade behind them
and they were able to getthrough those cycles of
retirement or job changes.
And what happened over decadesis we leaned out the workforce,

(22:14):
kind of did away with theapprenticeship programs and all
of a sudden all our baby boomersare retiring.
Country did way too muchoffshoring and outsourcing of
our skills and now we're at thepoint where what do we do?
What do we do?
So the apprenticeships,registered apprenticeships
there's a certain time periodthat has to elapse, okay, that

(22:37):
you have to basically complete ayou know a number of of steps
right to complete thatapprenticeship, whether that's
hands-on training, whether someof it maybe is at a local
community, college, right ortrade organization or or one of
our camps here.
But again, it depends againwhich apprenticeship it is, how
long that apprenticeship is.

Ralph Ford (22:58):
But you don't need a college degree.
You can, you got it.
It's based on experience,actually, and it's a very
intentional.
It doesn't take forever, but ittakes some time to really
develop that skill.
It's a very kind of nobleapproach to developing the
workforce too.

Paul Lynch (23:11):
And there was really at one time when
apprenticeships were strong,like I said, what really being
able to, you know, have thatnext generation ready, right,
there was really three entitiesinvolved the government, the
Department of Labor hasregistered apprenticeships, you
had the company itself and thenyou had our unions and they all

(23:31):
were influential in thoseprograms and we need to get back
to that.
We need to get back to really,you know, training folks and
understanding that it'simportant to invest right in
people and be ready for, youknow, be ready for the future.

Ralph Ford (23:45):
And what are the wages like here?
So wages, wages I'm assumingwages are pretty good.

Paul Lynch (23:50):
Yes, so so one of the things for a real.
You know an exact number, butyeah, so so what I've learned
from working with the.
You know I'm going to call theexperts with IACME.
There are folks that that'swhat they've done their entire
life.
Typically, as folks go throughand they're trained, their pay
scale will go up, so that Idon't know exact numbers.
But obviously, as they progressand they get more skilled and

(24:10):
they cross train, obviouslythat's usually a piece of it.

Ralph Ford (24:14):
The other thing you mentioned was K-12, and I'm
piqued by the you know you saidon this campus this summer we've
got some programs in metalcasting going on.
Can you take some young kidsand having them actually cast
metal and developing molds?
What are you doing to keep themengaged for a week in one of
these programs?

Paul Lynch (24:32):
So what we've done is basically, for the first time
, we've actually asked a few ofthe instructors can we have one
of your sessions, because theyall have five sessions, right?
So, for instance, we've workedwith a high school teacher here
that's teaching chemistry 101.
So we took one session, okay,and basically tied it to

(24:56):
chemistry right, tied the metalsto the periodic table, to
chemistry, did a niceintroduction, a couple of videos
to capture the interest.
These are six to eight yearolds, you know.
We showed them how their theirlittle die cast car from the
movie cars is made.
We showed them how.
They all told us we got here ina car, we got here in a van
today, or we got here in a truckand we showed them the engine

(25:19):
being manufactured right andsaid you wouldn't got here today
without metal casting, right.
They were asking all kinds ofquestions, right, and very
excited after that.
What we actually allowed them todo was we actually we had
someone working with either twoor three of them at a time and
every single one of thosestudents got to hand make a sand
mold.
Wow, we melted the metal Forsafety.

(25:39):
We just melted tin, allowedthem to watch the pouring of it
to shake out of the mold and allof them took home a cast part
and then they also took home abrochure about our initiative at
Behrend and our initiative withmetal for their parents and for
their family and they were veryhappy.
So what we've done for the andwe're going to do one more next

(25:59):
week for 10 to 14 year olds whatwe've also done is we've
integrated additivemanufacturing.
So next week's camp we're goingto be 10 to 14 year olds and
we're going to integrate.
They're going to get to do thehands-on casting but also
integrate additive manufacturinginto it.

Ralph Ford (26:14):
Wow, that is you know.
That of manufacturing into itWow, that is you know.
That's awesome to hear, becausemost people have no idea how
something like that is made.
I know I would never have had asense of it until later in life
.
So to see that at an early ageexperience it really great.
Now I want to hit.
You know we've got a few moreminutes left in our discussion
here.
A few things that I wanted tostill talk about is one I'd like

(26:37):
you to talk a little bit aboutyour research and just tell me a
little bit.
You know so as a faculty memberyou do teaching, research and
service broadly.
You've talked a bit about yourteaching and your passion there,
like what are the?

Paul Lynch (26:54):
problems you're looking at and how would you
explain that to a layman?
So primarily I work inindustrial manufacturing
engineering, also a facultymember in our master of
manufacturing management program, and I explained already today
my kind of background and havingworked under Professor Boyd at
University of Clark and hismetallurgical background, and so

(27:16):
most of the work that we'redoing is metal manufacturing.
We are big on physicalmetallurgy.
So you know we actually youknow, from design all the way
through the end, testing andlooking at the metallurgical
structure of the materials thatwere produced.
That is a big focus of what wedo.
And one of the things I thinkthat has happened in the past

(27:40):
couple of decades is we'verelied heavily on simulating and
simulations and when we'retalking with our local companies
, it's not uncommon once a weekthat I get a call from a local
company hey Paul, do you have anidea why this might be
happening?
Or they send me a sample in themail, right.
And and one of the things Ifound over time is simulation is

(28:03):
like going to a baseball gamethe simulation will get you in
the stadium, right, but it's theactual physical metallurgy and
understanding the structure andunderstanding the process
that'll get you to your seat and, and I think there was for
years.
I think there was a big gapthere and I think at Behrend,
here with the labs that we'vehad, we've developed a really

(28:24):
nice materials lab right in theAdvanced Manufacturing
Innovation Center, and so wespend a lot of time doing the
physical metallurgy piece andworking directly with
manufacturers.
So right now, to kind of fullyanswer your question, we have
three larger funded efforts.
One is with one of our localcompanies and we are looking at
everything from efficiencies,material selection,

(28:48):
characterization and thephysical metallurgy piece on
that side, all the way over tostudying emissions.
Can I put a dollar on this?
But also can I put alsoemissions factor on it?
So that's one project.
Another project we're working onwe're trying to develop Across
the world.
We have a deficit of scrapmaterial and we're in a battle

(29:12):
across the world for certainelements.
Can we develop materials at alower cost, mainly steels at a
lower cost that have highstrength, hardness, ductility
and toughness?
So we've been working on thatand trying to also make sure
that we can get the elements weneed and develop the chemistries

(29:33):
for it and the processes.
That's a second project thatwe're working on right now.
The last one here, the largeone we talked about and develop
the chemistries for it and theprocesses.
That's a second project thatwe're working on right now.
The last one here, the largeone we talked about, is really
the workforce development, themetal effort that we talked
about today and, as I said, thelistening sessions with our
local manufacturers.

Ralph Ford (29:47):
They said we need this.
Well, that is a significantamount of work and body of
research, so let's take that tothe next level.
We've got this project here oncampus, known as Project Resolve
that's well known in thecommunity and we're working on
the creation of a new center formanufacturing competitiveness

(30:11):
and, not surprising, you're inthe midst of all of those
efforts.
So I want to talk a bit aboutthe project.
But really, specifically, whatis the Center for Manufacturing
Competitiveness and what do yousee happening there?
What are you trying to makehappen in the center?

Paul Lynch (30:25):
We've been, as you know, ralph, we've been working
for a long time right on CMCCenter for Manufacturing
Competitiveness and I kind ofwant to dovetail that thought
into what we're doing with metal, this project metal.
That's at the heart of ourproject resolve and within
project resolve, that's whereour Center for Manufacturing

(30:46):
Competitiveness is planned tohouse a new additive
manufacturing and metal castingfacility, along with a battery
test facility.
We're talking about an AR andVR lab, virtual reality and an
advanced polymer recycling andcharacterization center here on
campus and specifically lookingat the additive manufacturing

(31:07):
and metal casting facility.
Looking at the additivemanufacturing and metal casting
facility, the ultimate goal ofthat facility, as we sat down
over years and again, this isindustry driven.
We sat down in listeningsessions with local industry,
you know, and said, okay, whatdo you need?
And outside of workforcedevelopment, it was that next
generation of technology to makethem competitive.
So really I think it's kind ofthree pieces.

(31:30):
We want to position ourPennsylvania metal industry to
be competitive, as I just said,both nationally and
internationally and really keepjobs right here in Erie, within
our region and also maintainingour environmental quality right.
That's a big piece of it.
So these specific goals andobjectives are really going to
be met, like I said, with threedeliverables.

(31:51):
I would say One is thatdevelopment of the advanced
additive and metal casting labhere at Behrend to be used as a
sandbox with our local metalindustry To work on projects
that allow the manufacturers totrain on the new technology,
adopt these new technologiesinto their businesses.

(32:13):
Why is that important?
Not only are you adopting andtraining, but if you look at the
breakdown of the forging andmetal casting industry in the
United States, you're talking80% small to medium-sized
businesses.
A lot of these folks don't havethe capital money sitting
around and go out and spendmillions of dollars unless it's
a proven technology.

(32:34):
Well, the proven piece comesfrom working in our sandbox and
then they go out and adopt itand they purchase their own
equipment.
Right, and they're training.
That's huge, that's huge.
Secondly, it's thatdissemination of that new
knowledge to the metal castingcommunity and our forging
industry through our tradeorganizations and our workforce
training organizations.

(32:54):
And then what are we doing oncampus?
Every day, we're training thatnext generation of our engineers
and our technicians to work inthe Pennsylvania metal industry,
both through training withinthe Penn State Behrend Metal
Program and also with havingindustry-specific job fairs and
student nights to bring theindustry in, to offer

(33:16):
internships with their companies, offer co-ops and offer
full-time positions.
So this thrust in the areas ofeducation and research and
manufacturing within this Centerfor Manufacturing
Competitiveness, that's right atthe heart of overall project
resolve, it's right at the heartof the metal program and, most
importantly, it's right at theheart of what our region is

(33:40):
asking from us.

Ralph Ford (33:43):
Well said and I think you know you hit on so
many important points there andyou mentioned as well
sustainability and I don't thinkyou know, I don't think that
that's fully understood, thatthese gains.
By the way, I'll just add alittle bit here.
A lot of people ask me aboutgreenhouse gases and
sustainability and I don't thinkmost people realize.

(34:05):
In the United States, actually,the greenhouse gas emissions
have actually been going downand per capita, they've actually
been going down since the 1970s.
Now this is a significantproblem that we need to address.
But my point is you'readdressing it in the center too,
by helping them adopt newtechnologies that are better for
the environment, reduce energy,fewer emissions.

(34:28):
But in the end we we all knowwhether it's an electric car or
whatever the vehicle is we'regoing to cast and forge some
parts for that and it requiresenergy.
And my point there is it'simportant sometimes seemingly
slow, but it's not that slow,that work is actually really
happening.
So I love to hear that.

Paul Lynch (34:47):
Yep, and interestingly, as I kind of
ended on the research piece, inthe past couple of years, as I
said, we undertook you know aproject and basically you know
every every Friday morning Ihave my you know materials and
manufacturing group researchmeeting.
You go back from the past twoyears kind of.
Every deliverable we worked ona week before it kind of was
okay, tell me cost and rightaside of it, I want to know

(35:09):
emissions, because all the waythrough the supply chain when
you look at steel, especiallytoday, there's questionnaires
going through that supply chain.

Ralph Ford (35:23):
People are being forced to answer those questions
about their facilities.
Oh yeah, well, we have had awonderful conversation.
We're almost to the end here,but is there anything you'd like
to add?
I'll give you the last word.
Any anything you'd like to talkabout, Paul.

Paul Lynch (35:34):
Kind of.
I mean, first of all, I want tothank you for allowing me to
come here and talk today, butreally what I want to do, okay,
at the end here, is just thankall our partners.
All right, Whenever I go to ameeting, I don't like to use the
word I?
It.
Whenever I go to a meeting, Idon't like to use the word I
it's we and I just spoke aboutthis at a local fundraiser.
I said what we've accomplishedin nine years and we're going to

(35:55):
continue to do.
We all did together.
It took bringing together thelocal manufacturers, offering
the internships, offering theco-ops.
They put an endowment fundtogether here.
They put money together and puta scholarship endowment fund
together for our studentsworking in industry.
If we call and we need seniorprojects or we need some
consumables in our labs, they'rehelping.

(36:18):
I just want to thank everybodyNorthwestern Pennsylvania AFS
chapter, the Foundry EducationalFoundation, you know,
Pennsylvania University, CasmanMills Advisory Committee
Committee and many, many morecompanies.
We could not do this alone, butwe are working with these folks
day in and day out and they'retelling us what we need and
we're delivering.

(36:38):
I want to see it continueforward.
I just want to thank everybodyin this region for all the help.

Ralph Ford (36:43):
I'd like to thank you as well for your role in
this, as well as all of thosewho are supporting us.
This has been a greatconversation.
I'm Dr Ralph Ford.
You have been listening toBehrend Talks, and my guest
today has been Dr Paul Lynch,associate Professor of
Industrial Engineering here atPenn State Behrend, leading a
lot of initiatives in metalcasting, and Paul's easy to

(37:05):
reach.
He's here on campus, so I thinkif listeners have any questions
, feel free to reach out to us.
Again, thanks for joining us,Paul.
Thank you.