Lure Of The Fairways Gives Forge New Drive
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday March 17, 1997
A new forging process has given two Melbourne companies a shot at success in the fierce market of golf equipment. MARGARET JAKOVAC reports.
AS Melbourne cheered its recent snaring of the prestige President's Cup golf tournament from the US, a local forge company and a new-start engineering company were quietly celebrating their own moves on US golf.
Earlier this year, the two Melbourne-based companies launched a range of forged golf clubs at one of the world's biggest golf shows in Orlando, Florida.
The metal "woods", made from aerospace-grade titanium, which is light and strong, have forged bodies with a crown that is welded on robotically. That's a change from traditional titanium heads - mostly made from pieces that have been pressed three to five times.
Forging strengthens the metal by creating a "grain" and allows a bigger club-head for the same weight, according to the partners, National Forge and Super Alloy Technologies (SAT).
An SAT director, Mr Michael Northwood, who markets the clubs, said: "The bigger the head, the bigger the sweet spot - the part of the club which comes into contact with the ball - and the more forgiving for off-centre tee shots. Each club you use has to feel the same for the swinging weight."
The companies refused to name the club brands using their technology, citing confidentiality agreements SAT had signed with major golfing equipment companies in the US. But Mr Northwood said the deals were for exports, the Australian market being too small for direct sales.
The golf clubs are forged in two stages; that's what is needed to make the right shape from the imported titanium billet.
Each day a new mould is used: the force of the press's blow destroys the mould's metal.
The titanium billets are first forged into what looks like a clenched fist missing most of the arm, then dunked in liquid glass. This leaves a light-blue coating which lubricates the metal in the press.
A forge worker uses long tongs to pop the "fists" into a rotary furnace.
Sixty fists fit side-by-side in what looks remarkably like a wood-fired pizza oven that heats to 1050 degrees celsius.
At the right moment, the worker whisks each piece on to the forge. Wham. A new shape is born, excess metal trimmed off in another press, and the club head is left to rattle down into a metal cage.
SAT has international patents pending on the forging process and Mr Northwood is careful about who sees the company's equipment.
The irons and drivers on show at Orlando were part of a small production run.
They will retail for between $US300 and $US500 ($377 to $628) each.
Although the publicly listed National Forge has yet to receive mass production orders from SAT, these are in the pipeline, SAT says.
Since production began in July, 40,000 clubs have rolled off the presses at the West Footscray-based National Forge. Depending on the enthusiasm of golfers, the forge plans to crank production up to 50,000 a month, making the clubs account for about half its revenues.
Mr Northwood's Thomastown-based company was formed three years ago to engineer golf clubs. It spent months quizzing forges overseas to see if they could make a forged titanium club. But it found the most receptive response here.
An acquaintance and former National Forge worker suggested Mr Northwood ask his former employer. The two companies struck a deal under which SAT machines, engraves and welds the club, then sends it to Thailand or Mexico for polishing. Golf equipment companies then add the shaft.
Mr Northwood recalled some scepticism at National Forge when he said he could sell 600,000 pieces of forged equipment: "I think they thought it was a bit of salesman talk."
SAT's research confirmed forged heads were part of a niche market. In the US each year about 60 million golf clubs are sold.
The project was something of a godsend for National Forge, which the non-executive chairman, Mr Roger Sayers, said had been scouting for new markets. Its turnover for the 1995-96 financial year was $50.4 million.
National Forge revenues are roughly 20 per cent from aerospace, 70 per cent automotive and 10 per cent golf heads. It has also made tank tracks, landing gear and automotive parts for Holden and Ford. Ford's parts are now forged in Germany.
National Forge, which was floated in 1992, is having something of a turnaround after a nasty 1993-94 financial year when it recorded a $4.7 million net loss. By 1994-95 this had grown to $5.2 million. Last year, it recorded a net loss of $400,000 and has since embarked on a debt-reduction program and capital reconstruction.
Given the size of the world golfing equipment market, National Forge has plans to boost production. It hopes to whisk the covers off its 4,500-tonne press, mothballed and in pieces since its purchase in mid-1995. For now, the company is soil-testing the site to design foundations to hold the monster.
It will sit on more than six metres of reinforced concrete.
"It's Australia's largest forging press," Mr Sayers said of the mothballed press.
"We've not had the money to put into the ground."
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald