Electric cars are gaining momentum this year, and companies are increasingly developing into intelligent factories. Trends that the casting industry can also follow in the fast lane. Innovations at GIFA's Düsseldorf trade fair quartet this week will show how companies can become even faster in their development.

High temperature differences, steam, particles and dirt: the harsh conditions in foundries and forges call for particularly robust systems. Due to this, ABB will present their robot portfolio with protected versions for extreme working environments and will showcase the new IRB 6790 robot for high-pressure water jet cleaning applications at GIFA 2019.

German machine tool builders are facing tougher times: In the first quarter of 2019, order intake fell by 21 % year-on-year.

In order to keep pace with the strong growth of die cast structural components, this year's CHINA DIE CASTING and CHINA NONFERROUS will focus on "Development and diversity of high-end die casting manufacturing technology".

A manufacturing process for cooling ducts in cast electric motor housings for e-mobility applications won this year's German Innovation Award in the "Excellence in Business to Business" category.

ZPF, manufacturer of highly efficient aluminum melting furnaces, has just developed a melting furnace that melts down aluminum chips as well as recycle material and ingots, ensuring a sustainable utilisation system.

Loramendi, Voxeljet and ASK Chemicals join forces in a key alliance to pioneer additive manufacturing in foundry serial-production and are going to show the complete integrated solution at GIFA 2019.

With OPTIMA 2.0, the new generation of mini risers from EXACTCAST, ASK Chemicals has developed a modular system with innovative components.

With the latest release of Altair Hyperworks, the simulation and AI driven product development platform, more solutions will be offered to designers and engineers to accelerate decision making and market introduction.

Metallic 3D printing is on track for automotive series production. In the future, at least 50,000 parts per year are to be produced in series production and more than 10,000 individual and spare parts. This goal is supported by the IDAM joint project.

After a construction period of 20 months and an investment of about CHF 50 million, the Bühler Group is now officially opening its CUBIC innovation campus with eight application centers.

In order to significantly increase productivity and prepare for the future of a rapidly growing aluminum market, the Brazilian industrial supplier Metalfino da Amazonia Ltda. in Manaus decided to set up melting capacities in-house.