Shultz Steel Company, in South Gate, California, was founded in 1947 by Mr. Gordon W. Shultz, (1916-2004). Mr. Shultz had previously founded and operated two other successful forging companies prior to Shultz Steel Company.

The company began with a total of four employees, serving the aerospace industry with an inventory of steel mill products readily available from stock in popular grades and sizes. During the 1950's, flat die and closed die forging hammers were added to the facility which enabled the supply of forgings to customers' specific size and shape requirements – either close tolerance forged bars or configurated shapes.

Open Die Forgings

By the early 1970's, Shultz Steel had gained a position as an important producer of complex open die forgings for the aerospace industry. Open die forgings are very important in the prototype and early production stages of aircraft because they can be made with little or no tooling, thereby permitting small production runs and design flexibility, and low cost forging product.

The 1650 ton open die press complex at Shultz Steel Company, the first computerized press manipulator facility in the United States, came on line in time to provide many of the early forging requirements for the B-1, F-15, and the B-747.

The success of this facility was followed by complementary investments in smaller (660 ton) and larger (6,000-ton) computerized presses. By the end of the 1970's, Shultz Steel Company had evolved into the most modern, wide-range, open die forging facility serving the aerospace industry.

Seamless Rings

Seamless rings in aluminum, steel, titanium and superalloys are used to make important structural components of launch vehicles, missiles, jet engines and rocket motors.

Seamless mandrel forged rings are conventional open die products, however, tolerances in such forgings are necessarily broader than can be achieved by ring rolling. Recognizing this, Shultz Steel, in the late 1970's, designed and built two ring mills; the larger of these is among the most powerful in the world. This ring mill is controlled by microprocessors using in-house designed software and supported by large 5,000-ton and 2,000-ton ring expanders. Rings manufactured on these mills have been used to make parts for most of the space boosters, launch vehicles and jet engines manufactured in recent years, including Space Shuttle sections; Delta II, III, and IV, H-2, and Ariane IV and V Launch Vehicles; and the gas turbine engines used to power the A-320, B-757, MD-80, DC-10 and F-15.

Impression Die Forgings

Impression die forgings are used for key structural airframe and engine parts. They generally replace blocks and open die forgings as aircraft designs "freeze" and production requirements develop.

Shultz Steel Company has manufactured impression die forgings over several decades for the aerospace industry. Recent years have seen a major expansion in its size range. In 1981, Shultz Steel installed the first new heavy hammer (30,000 lbs.) built in the United States since 1950. The hammer first produced a multitude of titanium and specialty steel forgings for the F-18 C/D and DC-8 –70 Series. In 1984, Shultz Steel erected its first heavy hydraulic press (28,000-tons) suitable for large aircraft structural parts. This was the first large forging press ever built by an American-owned company with its own funds.

In January 2000, Shultz Steel installed the industry's largest all-forged hydraulic press (40,000 tons). The 28,000-ton and 40,000-ton presses are the two newest large forging presses in the world. The last large press installed prior to Shultz Steel was 1976 (1954 in the United States).

The 28,000-Ton and 40,000-Ton Heavy Presses

The 28,000-ton and 40,000-ton presses were both designed by Shultz Steel. The presses are uniquely constructed entirely of forgings. Castings and weldments have been traditionally a source of failure in heavy presses. Downtime due to such failures is measured in months and, in some cases, years.

The largest forgings on these presses are the three main platens. On the 40,000-ton press, the largest weighs over one million pounds. The forgings to make these parts are among the largest ever manufactured, and required steel ingots weighing over 700 tons. The major press components were manufactured (in 1983 and again in 1999) at the Japan Steel Works in Hokkaido. The presses were erected in Japan under the supervision of Shultz Steel engineers.

In each case, the presses were assembled and tested, then totally dismantled while in Japan. The components were then loaded aboard special ships and sent to the Port of Long Beach. The vessels were equipped with large tonnage (600 tons for transport of the 40,000-ton press) booms and large wing tanks used to shift water ballast from one side to the other while lifting cargo to prevent capsizing. Moving the presses from Long Beach Port to the company site in South Gate, a distance of some 15 miles, required extraordinary measures because of the heavy concentrated weight: up to 500 tons each for the three main platens. This was accomplished for each piece by using four large diesel tractors, two pushing and two pulling, and a specially constructed vehicle with some 192 wheels mounted on steerable bogies. Movement was restricted to the hours between midnight and 5:00 a.m., over a route that had been engineered and approved by local and state authorities two years in advance.

The presses were erected using four specially constructed hydraulic jacks working on heavy temporary rails and a 120 ton crane. The time from order until installation and commissioning took over two and a half years.

Hydraulic working pressure is achieved on each press through a battery of rotary pumps, operating normally at 6,250 to 6,600 psi. The 40,000-ton press involves (24) 700 horsepower pumps (17,000 total horsepower output). The press is direct driven, assuring full tonnage at all times. The five other American owned heavy presses operate on water pumped up in an accumulator system, which loses pressure as it is drawn upon. Direct driven systems are also readily precision controlled, permitting extensive usage of modern deformation technology in forging design.

The 40,000-ton press has been in full operation since January 2000. Initial results have borne out the promises of modern materials, computer, valving and pump technologies.

CAD/CAM

Shultz Steel has invested heavily over the years in the application of microprocessor controlled equipment and robotics. All major presses and ring mills are computer controlled and serviced by the most advanced manipulators available anywhere.

The analytic power available from modern computers has been extended by Shultz Steel to the die design and die making processes. Shultz Steel, a pioneer in the development of automatic forging design, became the first forging facility in the world to use the McDonnell Douglas automation company's unigraphics system for die design, tool path calculation and DNC machining on its machine centers. Today, Shultz Steel Company has the largest computer totally dedicated to forging design in the forging industry, including full CATIA and interface linkage with some of its primary customers. This has resulted in lowered costs, improved lead times and reduction of dependence on a limited national pool of experienced die sinkers.

Testifying to the competence of Shultz Steel in this emerging technology, the United States Air Force awarded Shultz, in March, 1984, a multi-million dollar contract to develop and prove out software for automatic forging die design. McDonnell Douglas Automation Company and McDonnell Aircraft Company were subcontractors to Shultz Steel Company in this project.

The 1990's

In 1991, the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group recognized Shultz Steel with the coveted "President's Award", given annually to just a handful of The Boeing Company's thousands of suppliers.

In 1995, faced with looming build rate increases in the civil aircraft market, Shultz Steel embarked on one of the forging industry's largest-ever expansion programs. Including the revolutionary 40,000-ton press mentioned above, Shultz Steel invested over $70 million in acreage, forging support equipment, machine tools, increased employment, new buildings and computers to meet the challenge. The Shultz Steel of today is nearly twice the size (in acreage and total forging capacity output) of the 1995 company.

In 1997, Shultz Steel received Lockheed-Martin's coveted "STAR Supplier Award".  The recognition highlighted Shultz Steel's commitment to continuous improvement, quality, cost and delivery performance, and system certification to requirements for statistical process control (SPC).  Shultz Steel was the first forging supplier designated as a "STAR" supplier.

2000 and Beyond

In January 2000, Shultz Steel received independent third party registration to Quality Standard ISO 9002 by Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA).

In October 2003, Shultz Steel was certified by LRQA with ISO 9001:2000 (AS 9100:2001 Rev A Section 1) approval.

Shultz Steel remains a small business concern, privately owned and operated, serving aerospace and commercial customers since 1947 with "Tons of Quality and Service."