Customers

Who we build for, and who we are looking for first.

Forgiron is pre-launch. We have no customers to name and will not borrow logos. This page says who the product is for, what a design partner commits to, and who we deliberately do not target.

Pre-launch3 to 5 design partnersPaid pilot on one cell

Ideal customer

Forging and press-forming manufacturers, $100M to $20B revenue

Automotive and driveline, aerospace and defense, energy (turbine, oil and gas, nuclear) and industrial forging makers running billet heating, open- and closed-die forging, ring rolling, upsetting, trimming, heat-treat and finishing lines.

heatingpressdiesinspectionMES
Qualification

What makes a good first forge

The criteria we check, in order.

We look for

  • Enough production volume and forging value to drive a clear ROI; scrap, die changes and qualification are costly
  • Existing heating, forging and die systems, ultrasonic, MPI or vision inspection and MES, with API access for integration
  • An executive mandate to raise yield or cut scrap, die cost and energy and automate consistency
  • Willingness to run a paid pilot with a defined scrap, die-life or energy success metric

We do not target

  • Tiny job or blacksmith shops with no repeatable production-forging scope
  • Sites unwilling to integrate heating, forging, die and inspection systems under IP and security controls
  • Buyers looking for a horizontal dashboard rather than a system that acts
Design partner programme

What the first cohort gets and gives

Three to five forges with one high-value cell or part family each, that agree to baseline scrap, die life, energy, inspection escapes and takt for 30 to 60 days before anything is written.

  1. Shadow mode, 30 to 60 days. We connect read-only to the wedge workflow, observe and measure the baseline from your own records. Nothing is written.
  2. Assist mode, the rest of a 90 to 180 day pilot. The agent recommends heating, press, die or routing moves and predicts defects and die wear. Your engineer approves each one. Accuracy and ROI are measured against the signed baseline.
  3. Bounded autonomy. Pre-approved low-risk actions run inside limits with exceptions escalated, if the forge is satisfied with the recommendations. Press control stays supervised.
  4. Conversion. The pilot converts to the Cell tier and expands cell by cell. Design partners get written access terms for telemetry and quality outcomes, and a say in the roadmap.
Who it is for

Built for the people who run the forge

We have no customer quotes to show yet and will not invent any. These are the three roles in a forge we build for, and the problems they bring to the first meeting.

Plant or Operations Director

Owns production rate, quality, scrap and yield, die life, energy and safety.

What this person is dealing with today

  • Fixed heating and press setpoints that cap fill, grain flow, rate and consistency
  • Scrap, downgrade, die changes and energy eroding margin in a brutal, hot environment
  • A severe, retiring forge-operator and die-engineer shortage that caps rate

Forging or Die Engineer

Owns heating, press schedules, die design and heat-treat recipes, process windows and yield.

What this person is dealing with today

  • Laps, folds, underfill, cracks and internal defects driving scrap and downgrade
  • Die wear and thermal fatigue forcing costly die changes and downtime
  • Heating, forging, die management and inspection siloed and reactive

Quality or Reliability Engineer

Owns forging quality to AS9100, IATF 16949, NADCAP and ASTM, defect and grain-flow conformance, genealogy and qualification traceability.

What this person is dealing with today

  • Overheating, decarburization and heat-treat faults degrading properties and safety
  • Spot inspection by a scarce NDT workforce, with escapes that become field failures
  • Qualification evidence assembled by hand after the fact
Segments

Where forges start

Automotive and driveline, aerospace and defense, energy, industrial forgings, ring rolling and open-die. Most forges pick one cell and one wedge, prove the number, then expand.

Automotive and drivelineVolume, scrap and die cost

Automotive and driveline

Crankshafts, connecting rods, gears, axle and suspension parts at rate. Heatrix and Diesmith on the highest-volume cell first, where scrap and unplanned die changes are already counted.

Aerospace and defenseQualification burden

Aerospace and defense

Turbine and engine discs, landing gear and structural forgings under AS9100 and NADCAP. Flawnex on the inspection line, with genealogy and cited disposition from day one.

EnergyHigh part value

Energy

Turbine, oil and gas and nuclear forgings where a single internal defect is catastrophic. Flawnex and Forgetwin on the part family with the longest qualification cycle.

Industrial forgingsValves, flanges, fittings

Industrial forgings

Closed-die and upsetting lines making industrial parts in many alloys. Forgeon and Diesmith on the press cell with the most changeovers.

Ring rolling and open-dieLarge sections, long heats

Ring rolling and open-die

Rings and open-die forgings where billet heating is the energy bill and the stroke count is high. Heatrix first, then Forgeon on the mill.

Run timeline · scenario

One scenario run, step by step

Every Forgiron run is an ordered, inspectable sequence. This is run_7c2e41 on Cell F-2 · 2,500 t closed-die press · 42CrMo4 connecting rod. Scenario completes in 10 steps with one approval gate. Surface temperature held at 1,205 °C with a 14 °C core-to-surface spread, fill predicted and confirmed complete, one lap precursor at the flash land cleared by a blow-energy trim, lot L-80412 released with full genealogy.

run_7c2e41 Cell F-2 · 2,500 t closed-die press · 42CrMo4 connecting rod illustrative scenario SUCCEEDED
  1. 01 ingest.order SUCCEEDED 0.6 s

    Plant Orchestrator · Pulled the part spec for the 42CrMo4 connecting rod from MES: forging window 1,180 to 1,230 °C, two-blow closed-die schedule, flash land 2.4 mm, temper to 28 to 32 HRC, 1,200 pieces. Locked the qualified process envelope.

  2. 02 twin.simulate SUCCEEDED 52 s

    Forge Twin · Simulated 24 candidate heat-and-stroke recipes on the as-forged twin for soak time, blow energy and spray timing, ranked on predicted fill, lap risk at the flash land, die load and kWh per piece.

  3. 03 heat.soak SUCCEEDED 2 m 10 s

    Heat-and-Billet · Induction power on IH-2 stepped down 4% in the final soak stage as the pyrometer read 1,205 °C at the surface. Core-to-surface spread estimated at 14 °C against a 20 °C limit, no overheat, scale growth inside the window.

  4. 04 die.spray SUCCEEDED 48 s

    Die-and-Lube · Lower-die spray dose raised 6% and cooling extended 0.3 s as die surface temperature climbed through 240 °C. Heat-check growth on cavity 2 flagged at 0.31 of the die-change threshold.

  5. 05 approve.human APPROVAL 46 s

    Plant Orchestrator · Recipe #9 moves second-blow energy 3% below the standing schedule. Press-schedule changes stay supervised on this part family, so the step was held for the shift forging engineer and approved at 05:47:31.

  6. 06 forge.stroke SUCCEEDED 1 m 36 s

    Forge-and-Press · Two-blow schedule executed with the approved energy. High-speed vision and force curves confirmed complete fill on the first ten pieces; predicted lap risk at the flash land fell from 0.27 to 0.08.

  7. 07 inspect.fuse SUCCEEDED continuous

    Defect-and-Inspect · Eight cameras, two thermal cameras and the ultrasonic station fused at the edge. One lap precursor at the flash land on piece 212 flagged and cleared by a 1.5% blow-energy trim inside the approved envelope; the piece was routed to MPI and passed.

  8. 08 handle.transfer SUCCEEDED continuous

    Robot-and-Handling · Press-to-trim transfer planned and executed by the handling robot at 11 s per piece, temperature loss in transfer 38 °C against a 60 °C limit, interlock zones clear throughout.

  9. 09 heat.treat SUCCEEDED continuous

    Trim-and-Heat · Temper furnace HT-1 zone 2 trimmed 5 °C against the predicted hardness from the recorded heat and stroke history. First hardness checks read 30 HRC, inside 28 to 32.

  10. 10 lot.release SUCCEEDED 1 m 20 s

    Quality-and-Conformance · Lot L-80412 released: genealogy written (billet lot, heat curve, stroke record, die cycles, inspection map, approvals, temper record) and dispositioned against IATF 16949 criteria with cited evidence for the quality engineer's sign-off.

Autonomy

Four levels, set per agent and per tag

A forge does not go from manual to unattended in one step. Forgiron makes the level explicit, auditable and reversible at any time. The first release runs shadow mode, then assist mode, then bounded autonomy on low-risk actions. Press control stays supervised until the part family is qualified.

Autonomy levels and the human role at each
LevelWhat the agent doesWhat the human doesWhere it sits in a pilot
L1 · ShadowReads thermal, vision, ultrasonic, MPI, press, die, robot and MES signals; predicts and recommends; writes nothingRuns the cell as today; compares predictions to inspection and engineer outcomesShadow mode, baseline 30 to 60 days
L2 · AssistProposes heating, press, die-lube, routing and handling actions with evidence, confidence, envelope and rollback pathApproves each action in the review consoleAssist mode, the remainder of a 90 to 180 day pilot
L3 · BoundedExecutes pre-approved low-risk actions: inspection routing, lube timing, heating and soak adjustments, robot path variants, inside PLC and safety limitsApproves press-schedule changes, die changes and lot releaseGraduated autonomy, after audited accuracy and ROI
L4 · ScaledSupervised press-schedule adaptation for qualified part families, across cells and sitesSets the envelope; reviews the shift record and the evaluation resultsPlanned; after golden-dataset evaluation, simulation validation and quality sign-off
FAQ

Straight answers

The questions plant directors, forging engineers and quality engineers ask in the first meeting.

Yes, but only within an explicit tag allow-list with per-tag rate and magnitude limits, inside the qualified process envelope, and only at the autonomy level your plant has set. Design partners start in shadow mode, where Forgiron writes nothing. Press-schedule changes stay supervised by a named forging engineer until the part family is qualified.

Get started

Apply as a design partner

Tell us the cell, the metric and the baseline you would sign. We will tell you honestly whether the wedge fits.