AMERICAN NEWS
By John Wolz
editor@GlobalFastenerNews.com
Ex-TV reporter leads North American fastener manufacturers
In March Jennifer Johns Friel became the first woman chair of the Industrial Fasteners Institute in its 80 year history.
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n high school and college she worked summers at Mid West Fabricating Co, but Jennifer Johns Friel’s first career was as a news reporter for WKYT TV in Lexington, KY. Her fastener manufacturer father, David Johns, insisted she
earn a business degree at the University of Denver so she could “make a living” in case the television news goal didn’t work out. After nearly five years chasing news stories, Friel was looking at alternatives. She took a research role and three years later became company vice president. Friel became president in 1997 when her father developed health problems. David Monti is the new IFI vice chair. Monti is general manager
of Fall River Manufacturing Co. of Fall River, MA. He entered the fastener industry in 1999 after 13 years in the automotive parts business. Friel’s grandfather, Stanton Johns, is generally credited as the founder of Mid West Fabricating. Friel emphasizes that
her grandmother, Jane Johns, was truly a co-founder. Jane Johns had the business degree and front office knack. Stanton Johns had the technical knowledge, held patents and had the entrepreneurial spirit to start the company in 1945. Friel’s father, David Johns, was the 1993-94 IFI chairman, and her husband, Michael Friel was the 2005-06 chair. Friel told
GlobalFastenerNews.com she envisions more
technical services for IFI members. Director of engineering technology Joe Greenslade has been using GoTo Meetings and there will be more technology applied to IFI meetings. For example, during breakout sessions a speaker may participate via Skype without the cost of travelling to the meeting. Mid West Fabricating specializes in cold forming of steel
into special fasteners and formed rod. It has plants in southern California and Ohio, and is headquartered in a 125,000 sq ft facility in Amanda, Ohio.
Precision Castparts acquires PB Fasteners
Precision Castparts Corp has agreed to acquire the assets of PB Fasteners. PB designs and manufactures fastener products for airframe applications, including the development of the SLEEVbolt fastening system. The company’s sleeve bolt technology is critical to mitigating the impact of lightning strikes on the Boeing 787 aircraft.
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ocated in Gardena, California, PB entered the aerospace fastener business in 1967. “We have been looking at PB for a long time as part of our continued strategy to expand our critical aerospace fastener portfolio,” said Mark Donegan, chairman and chief executive officer of PCC. “PB provides the technology to accelerate our growth into composite-based aircraft like the 787, as well as other new, advanced aerospace platforms. We will look to leverage their knowledge base across our
other fastener operations. In addition, PB will now be our ninth fastener manufacturing operation in southern California, providing further opportunities for synergies and leverage.” Specific details of the deal are not being disclosed. The acquisition is expected to complete first quarter fiscal 2012, after which PB’s results will be reported as part of the PCC Fastener Products segment.
State program aids hot forming facility
A Michigan program to train new employees contributed to Dokka Fasteners decision to build the first new hot forming facility in the U.S. in 40 years, the Daily Tribune reports.
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okka Fasteners CEO Marc Strandquist told the Tribune that training opportunities at nearby Oakland Community College were the defining factor for his company to locate its 100,000 sq ft manufacturing
facility in Michigan rather than Indiana, Illinois or Missouri. In 2010 Dokka established its first hot forming fastener
manufacturing facility in North America to supply the growing U.S. wind energy market. The site is a state-of-the-art fastener facility featuring a fully automated manufacturing process - something parent company Würth called “the first of its kind in the U.S.” The US$20 million robotic hot forming manufacturing facility
replicates the high-tech process found in the facility of Dokka Norway - an industry leader in providing wind energy fastener products for over two decades.
Fastener + Fixing Magazine • Issue 69 May 2011 New employee training opportunities are part of the Michigan
New Jobs Training program, an incentive passed by the state Legislature in 2008. Strandquist said the ability to “train a workforce from the
ground up” on brand-new equipment made a huge difference, according to the Tribune. “We’ve hired 25 people so far and I’m really proud that 12
people were on unemployment at the time we hired them, so we’ve been able to take people off the unemployment roll,” stated Strandquist. Auburn Hills-based Dokka will utilize the program to hire
and train a total of 76 workers to produce fasteners for the wind energy market. The US$950,000 training costs are covered by the state’s incentive program.
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