Welcome to the homepage of the Atlanta Chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), where manufacturing comes together in North Georgia!

News and Upcoming Events

SME Atlanta is proud to announce our theme for 2012: GEORGIA MADE!
Our tours & presentations this year will center around the reasons and benefits as to why companies choose to bring or keep their manufacturing in the Peach State. We are excited to promote manufacturing enterprises that grow, attain global competitiveness, and make metro-Atlanta a new manufacturing leader.

Check out our upcoming and past events below!

May 10, 2012 - "Big M Manufacturing of Small m Materials"

A technical presentation by Dr. Ben Wang, Executive Director, Manufacturing Research Center (MaRC) and  Chief Manufacturing Officer at Georgia Tech

SME Atlanta & the TAG Manufacturing Society are excited to announce a special joint-event with guest speaker, Dr. Ben Wang, Executive Director of the Manufacturing Research Center (MaRC) and Chief Manufacturing Officer at Georgia Tech. Dr. Wang's talk will focus on two inter-related topics: 1.) an overview of Big M Manufacturing R&D at Georgia Tech, and 2.) a case study of Big M Manufacturing: scaling up of a special type of nanomaterial, called carbon nanotube buckypaper, and its applications to build ultra-lightweight, high-performance engineered systems. After Dr. Wang's presentation, we will be touring parts of the MaRC building.

Click here to go to our Events page to get more details and register for the event!     

Past Events

April 12, 2012 - Tour of Lehigh Technologies

Thanks to our gracious hosts at Lehigh Technologies for putting together a great tour of their facilities on April 12th! April was National Recycling month and what better way to celebrate than by holding an SME tour at the Lehigh Technologies manufacturing plant & Advanced Development Center in Tucker, GA? Lehigh Technologies is a green materials company that is helping solve the important environmental problem of end-of-life tires and post-industrial waste rubber. Lehigh turns this high-value waste material into a micronized rubber powder (MRP) that is used in a wide range of consumer and industrial applications, including high-performance tires, consumer goods, and construction materials. This third generation technology is being used in more than 100 million tires at a rate of 140 million pounds per year. 

March 20, 2012 - Tour of Seasons 4, Inc.

Exceeding expectations since its founding in Douglasville, Georgia in 1971, Seasons 4 has been providing custom HVAC systems for supermarkets, schools, commercial and office buildings, government facilities, and other applications. Their systems provide superior performance and quality for new construction and replacement, each engineered to meet the customer's specific performance requirements. Their replacement HVAC systems are built to fit on existing curb, platform or steel, and can be installed in eight hours or less so that operations are not disrupted. Many thanks to Seasons 4 for hosting a great tour of their facility on Tuesday, March 20th!

February 16, 2012 - Tour of YSS Athletics

Thanks to our friends at YSS Athletics for hosting a great tour of their facility on February 16th. More than 25 people attended the event and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. YSS Athletics is a custom athletic apparel manufacturer in Snellville, GA which started as a result of a high school varsity coach being frustrated with uniform vendors. She was challenged by her principal to make her own team's uniforms and, as a result, YSS Athletics was created. YSS Athletics has become an innovator in the sports uniform industry, producing cutting-edge, custom design and custom fitting uniforms, especially for the female athlete. All of its uniforms are designed with the customer and program in mind, and customers can come to its facility and design their own uniforms for subsequent production. Using the latest technology for apparel manufacturing, which is often only seen in off-shore plants, YSS uniforms are created in software which allows for uniformity regardless of the sport for which they are created. Every aspect of the uniform is created and completed in the YSS facility in Snellville, GA, beginning with design, cutting, sewing and decoration which can include embroidery or screen printing. 

January 26, 2012 - History of Mfg Presentation: How Dalton Became the Carpet Capital of the World

SME kicked-off 2012 with a special presentation on the history of manufacturing in Georgia - specifically, Dalton's incredible domination of the carpet industry. On Thursday, January 26th, guest speaker Douglas Flamming, Professor in the School of History, Technology, and Society at Georgia Tech told the fascinating story of southern entrepreneurship and regional transformation that led to Dalton, Georgia becoming the carpet capital of the world. Many thanks to Dr. Flamming for taking time out of his busy schedule to provide us with an engaging night of talking about manufacturing history in the state of Georgia.

October 18, 2011 - Tour of Millennium Mats (Suwanee, GA)

Thanks to the team at Millennium Mat for a great tour of their manufacturing facility in Suwanee, GA on October 18th. The group had a great time and was glad to have the chance to see a state of the art facility that has re-shored products from Mexico and China by increasing efficiencies, utilizing recycled products and a implementing a state-of-the-art monitoring system.

September 20, 2011 - SME Laser Marking & Engraving Presentation/Demo Presented by: MECCO Marking & Traceability

Dave Sweet, President of MECCO Marking and Traceability, gave a great presentation on laser marking technology. Thanks to Dave for making the trip to the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Research Center and providing a very interesting talk and demo.

August 25, 2011 - SME Happy Hour at SweetWater Brewery!

 Thanks to all who came out and joined us at Sweetwater Brewery on August 25th. Everyone had a great time catching up after our summer break!

May 24, 2011 - Tour of Price Industries

Thanks to our friends at Price industries for putting on a great tour on May 24, 2011. We appreciate the efforts of our gracious hosts and enjoyed seeing the top-notch facilities!

 April 19, 2011 - Chicago White Metal Casting in-depth Die Casting Seminar - Joint SME/ASME Event

Many thanks to Jody Scollard who gave an interesting and informative presentation on advanced die casting and the work that Chicago White Metal Casting has done in this area. We also want to send a special thanks to the folks of ASME's Atlanta Chapter for their efforts in creating a great joint event.

March 24, 2011 - Tour of Applied Industrial Technologies Distribution Center

On Thursday, March 24th, SME Atlanta toured through Applied Industrial Technologies' distribution center in Lithia Springs, GA. It was exciting to see one of North America’s largest industrial distributors of bearings, power transmission components, hydraulic components and systems, pneumatic components and systems, industrial rubber products, linear components, tools, safety products, general maintenance and a variety of material handling products. Thanks to our hosts at Applied for providing such an interesting tour!

February 15, 2011 - Tour of WIKA Instrument Corporation

On February 15th SME Atlanta toured through WIKA Instrument Corporation with a total of 43 attendees!  Thanks to all of you who joined us for the tour and many thanks to our gracious hosts at WIKA who made it all possible.

November 16, 2010 - Tour of Meggitt Training Systems!

On November 16th SME Atlanta toured through Meggitt Training Systems and had a great time using the simulators that Meggitt has built its strong reputation on. Many thanks to our hosts for putting on a tour that everyone enjoyed!  

FABTECH Volunteer Opportunities - Complimentary Registration!

SME "Members Only" Meet and Greet at FABTECH - November 3rd!

SME held a "members only" meet and greet event on Wednesday, November 3rd in the Showcase Theater at FABTECH.  Click here to see the details of this event! 

North America's largest metal forming, fabricating, finishing and welding event returned to the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta from November 2-4, 2010!

Click here to see all of the details from the event.

SME's Manufacturing Engineering magazine now available online!

Manufacturing Engineering, SME's authoritative flagship publication is now available for viewing online! Click here to see a video about all the exciting benefits and features of the new format on the SME International site.    

October 28, 2010 - Lunch and Tour of Bonnell Aluminum!

The Bonnell Aluminum tour on October 28th was a fun and interesting lunch meeting.  Thanks to all of you who attended the tour and a special thanks to Bonnell Aluminum for hosting us!

September 21, 2010 – Tour of Nisshinbo

Thanks to everyone who attended the tour of Nisshinbo North American operations on September 21st! We also want to send a special thanks to our gracious hosts at Nisshinbo - they put on an excellent tour! 

August 26, 2010 – Tour of SweetWater Brewery

We had a fun time at the SweetWater Brewery and were glad to see many new and familiar faces!  Thanks to all who came out and made it a great night.  We hope to plan similar mixers in the future so stay tuned to the website for more information!