PM Champion to Receive Award for Helping Advance Technology Applications

Chad Spore, staff engineer, Enterprise Materials Engineering, John Deere Waterloo Works Drivetrain Operations, Waterloo, Iowa, has been selected to receive the Vanguard Award from the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF). The award recognizes powder metallurgy (PM) industry champions from the end-user community whose long-time promotion of the technology has contributed to the expansion of powder metal applications. Spore is only the second person to receive the award since its inception in 2014. The award presentation will take place during the Industry Luncheon at the POWDERMET2018, International Conference on Powder Metallurgy and Particulate Materials, and co-located AMPM2018: Additive Manufacturing with Powder Metallurgy conference, June 17–20, in San Antonio, Texas.

Over the course of 20 years at Deere, Spore has seen both an expansion in component complexity and in applications, paralleling increases in density and material performance, as well as the PM industry’s ability to bring cost-effectiveness benefits to even lower volumes. This has given Deere more opportunities to change components from conventionally formed to PM fabricated. Additionally, the demand for lightweighting of components is significant in the agricultural market, just as it is in the automotive industry, and it has gained significant focus at Deere. Weight affects fuel efficiency in tractors; impacts the cost of product shipping; and is placed where needed for ballasting a tractor to provide the proper traction in its work environment in a field. PM and PM lightweighting offer many solutions to these challenges.

Spore has been active at MPIF’s annual POWDERMET conferences as a presenter, session chairman, and Special Interest Program organizer. He is also an active member of the Center for Powder Metallurgy Board of Trustee’s.

Editor's Note: For further information contact Dora Schember at dschember@mpif.org or
(609) 452-7700.