# Forging Industry Association (FIA): forging processes, standards and ERP realities > Source: https://netray.co/manufacturing/forging-industry-association-fia-ecosystem > Publisher: Netray (netray.co), AI and integration engineering for ERP and manufacturing systems. > Section: Manufacturing Hubs ## Short answer The Forging Industry Association (FIA) is the US trade association for the forging industry, serving forgers and their suppliers across open die, closed die and ring rolling operations. It is based in Cleveland, Ohio, and is connected to the Forge Fair trade show. This page explains what forging shops do and the ERP, traceability and costing problems they typically face. ## Kind association ## Country United States ## Area Forging ## Intro The Forging Industry Association (FIA) is the US trade association for the forging industry, serving forgers and their suppliers across open die, closed die and ring rolling operations. It is based in Cleveland, Ohio, and is connected to the Forge Fair trade show. This page explains what forging shops do and the ERP, traceability and costing problems they typically face. ## Industries ### Closed die (impression die) forging **Detail:** Steel, aluminum and titanium parts such as crankshafts, connecting rods, gears, hand tools and aerospace structural parts, formed in dies on presses or hammers. ### Open die forging **Detail:** Large shafts, discs, rings and blocks for energy, shipbuilding, mining and heavy machinery, shaped by hammering or pressing between flat or simple dies. ### Seamless rolled ring forging **Detail:** Rings for bearings, flanges, gears, turbine and pressure applications produced by piercing and rolling a preform. ### Heat treat, machining and inspection **Detail:** Many forgers add normalizing, quench and temper, rough machining and ultrasonic or magnetic particle inspection before shipment. ## Ecosystem ### Forging Industry Association (FIA) **Type:** association **Note:** Trade association for the US forging industry, based in Cleveland, Ohio, and associated with the Forge Fair trade show. ### Forging Industry Educational and Research Foundation (FIERF) **Type:** association **Note:** Foundation associated with the forging industry supporting education and research. ### Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) **Type:** association **Note:** Association for metal stamping and related forming processes, a neighboring industry to forging. ### ASTM International **Type:** standard body **Note:** Publishes forging material specifications, for example for carbon and alloy steel forgings. ### ASM International **Type:** standard body **Note:** Materials information society with heat treating and forming references used by forging metallurgists. ### NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) **Type:** MEP center **Note:** National network of MEP centers supporting small and mid-size manufacturers with improvement projects. ## Requirements - ISO 9001 quality management - AS9100 and Nadcap special process accreditation for aerospace forgings - IATF 16949 for automotive forgings - Material test reports with heat and lot traceability (for example EN 10204 type certificates where customers ask) - Ultrasonic and magnetic particle inspection to customer or industry specifications - ITAR and EAR handling for defense related drawings - ASME and API requirements for pressure and oil and gas forgings ## Sections ### What forgers make and for whom **Body:** Forging works hot metal into shape under compressive force, giving parts a grain structure that suits high-stress duty. Aerospace, defense, energy, oil and gas, automotive and heavy equipment are the main buyers, with demand cycles that differ sharply by sector. Because dies, furnaces and presses are expensive, forgers are sensitive to batch size, die changeover and furnace utilization. A job mix swing between short aerospace lots and long automotive runs changes scheduling and cost logic. ### Quoting and costing **Body:** Forging quotes are driven by billet or bar weight, material grade and surcharges, die cost and life, press time, heat treat, inspection and any machining. Raw material is typically the largest piece cost, so material index adjustments and scrap or flash loss assumptions matter. Estimators often keep weight and yield calculations in spreadsheets. Linking quotes to actual material consumption and die life in the ERP shows where quoted yields were optimistic. **Bullets:** - Reconcile quoted flash and scale loss with actual consumption - Track die life per part and charge or amortize it correctly - Model heat treat and inspection as routing steps with real lead times ### ERP and traceability in forging shops **Body:** Forgers use manufacturing ERPs such as Infor SyteLine/CloudSuite Industrial, Epicor Kinetic, Global Shop Solutions and others, plus separate furnace, press and NDT records. Certified work depends on tying each forging back to a heat, a furnace load and test results. The most common pain is certification paperwork assembled by hand from several systems. Automating the material test report package from ERP lot data and lab results saves hours and cuts transcription errors. ### Where private AI helps and where it does not **Body:** Bounded uses include answering questions over ERP data (open orders by grade, die usage, late heat treat jobs) and searching customer specifications and past certification packages. Local deployment keeps drawings and cost data inside the plant, which matters for defense and export-controlled work. AI should not decide heat treat parameters or accept material, and a standard ERP report may be enough for simple queries. Keep write-back, such as updating lot records, behind human approval. ## Faq ### What is the Forging Industry Association? **Answer:** FIA is the US trade association for the forging industry. It serves forgers and their suppliers with advocacy, education and events, and it is based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is associated with the Forge Fair trade show. ### What is the difference between open die and closed die forging? **Answer:** Open die forging shapes metal between flat or simple dies and suits large, low volume parts. Closed die forging presses metal into shaped dies to make near-net-shape parts at higher volume with tighter tolerances. ### What traceability do forged parts need? **Answer:** Certified forgings usually need heat number, chemistry and mechanical test results tied to each part or lot, plus records of heat treat and inspection. Aerospace, defense and pressure work often require a full certification package. ### Can a forging shop use AI without sending data to the cloud? **Answer:** Yes. Open-weight models can run on the shop's own GPUs, answering questions over ERP data and documents on-premises. This suits export-controlled drawings, but it should stay read-only until the results are validated. ## Search terms forging industry association, fia forging, forge fair, forging erp software, open die vs closed die forging, forging quoting software, forging material traceability --- Talk to an engineer: https://netray.co/contact?intent=erp_ai | Machine catalog: https://netray.co/agent/catalog.json