CPT International 04/2016

EDITORIAL K
Light metal casting is enjoying
a worldwide boom
One year comes to a close, and another starts! One cannot really expect political
stability on the global stage in 2017 in view of the unexpected election of
Donald Trump as the next US President and a European Union weakened by
Brexit. But this need not affect development of the world’s foundry sector –
after all, Trump has promised to make the US economy strong again and to
revive weak industries. Whether and when these promises will be kept remains
to be seen. The announced US economic program, however, can only be a good
thing for the world’s second-strongest foundry industry. Though a good position
in the ranking of casting producers may be of little significance in the real
world. Our author Douglas Trinowski has compared mold and core production
by US casters with that of their colleagues in the EU and brings the statistics
and rankings to life on P. 37.
When examining the last two surveys by Modern Casting on global casting
production (in 2013 and 2014) one common feature can immediately be seen:
the quantity of aluminum castings produced is rising considerably – not that
this is a great surprise given the developments towards light construction in
the automotive and other sectors.
Aluminum and other light metals also determine much of this issue of
CASTING, whether in the form of an interview with the General Manager of
the well-known die-casting machine producer Idra Riccardo Ferrario (from
P. 6), an article on the innovative HZD zinc-casting foundry (which, thanks
to its research, has created new materials and made interesting advances in
functional integration, P. 20), or a report on the Swiss die-caster DGS Druckguss
and its growth strategy for automotive structural castings (from P. 42).
Then, among other things, there is an excellent article on the high-strength
non-ferrous material Silafont-38 (P. 10) and a comprehensive specialist article
on tungsten composite materials as mold materials for die casting, written by
the Austrian Foundry Institute (ÖGI, from P. 24).
One has already started celebrating Christmas in many parts of the world. I
wish you a happy festive season in the names of all in the CASTING Editorial
Office! Of more importance here, however, is the New Year’s festival that affects
all of us – have a good new year and why not read CASTING again during the
holiday period?
Have a good read!
Robert Piterek
e-mail: robert.piterek@bdguss.de
Casting Plant & Technology 4 / 2016 3