NFFS receives multi-year contract to expand ICON portal to also serve forging industry

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Non-Ferrous Founders’ Society Receives Multi-Year Contract to Expand Department of Defense Portal to also Serve Forging Industry Members

The Non-Ferrous Founders’ Society, the premiere trade association serving the non-ferrous casting industry in the US and Canada, is excited to announce the launch of a program to expand the ICON portal to include the US forging industry. The ICON portal currently connects firms in the casting and machining industries to solicitations containing opportunities to make critical parts sourced by the Department of Defense. The new project will leverage the infrastructure and connectivity already available in ICON.

Funding to support this expansion came from the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) program, managed DoD’s Innovation Capabilities and Modernization (ICAM) office. ICAM is part of the Modernization Capabilities Expansion and Investment Prioritization (MCEIP) directorate, which is overseen by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Resilience (DASD/IBR) part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy (OASD IBR). Funding for the current ICON portal is provided by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).

“I am very excited about the incorporation of forging into our ICON portal. This significant expansion marks a pivotal moment for the DoD and the defense industrial base community, as it enhances our ability to meet critical defense parts needs with unmatched precision and efficiency,” said Jerrod Weaver, Executive Director of NFFS. “We are confident that this expansion will foster greater collaboration and responsiveness within the defense industrial base and the casting and forging sectors, ultimately strengthening our national security. NFFS remains committed to supporting the DoD in achieving its mission-critical objectives, and the enhanced capabilities offered by the ICON portal are just one example of our ongoing dedication to supporting our nation’s warfighters.”

“Cast and forged parts are critical to virtually every platform, weapon, system, and weapon DoD has,” said ICAM Director Adele Ratcliff. “In this age of increased—and continuously increasing—peer competition, DoD must be able to quickly leverage the capabilities of every U.S. and allied company capable of making high quality castings and forgings to support our warfighters. Adding forging data to ICON will be a major contribution to that goal.”

NFFS will partner with the Forging Industry Association (FIA) to connect directly with their membership to develop and grow ICON’s forging expansion. FIA has the experience and deep connections within the forging industry marketplace; they will be critical in coordinating the ICON expansion.  “FIA appreciates this initiative to get the forging industry’s capabilities into the ICON database to enhance the DoD’s ability to quickly find and contact our members to meet all their forging needs” said Jim Warren, President & CEO of the Forging Industry Association. “We see this as a win-win for the DoD and our members, and look forward to working with NFFS to make this already successful resource even better,” Warren concluded. 

Developing the infrastructure and enhancement of the online portal will take several months, but the program aims to go live with the forging industry expansion by the fall of 2025.  For more information on ICON, please visit www.nffs.org/icon.