Hydro has decided to invest NOK60 million in a new casting furnace for the production of foundry alloys at Hydro Sunndal. The project will start immediately and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023.

In August the European Foundry Sentiment Indicator (FISI) increased again after the slight dampener in the previous month. The plus of 1.0 points brings the index to a value of 109.7. While the current business situation is generally rated poorer than in the previous month, the more positive expectations for the coming six months pull the index up on balance.

Despite all the supply bottlenecks, the order books in the mechanical engineering industry were continuously filled up strongly in August. The German Engineering Federation (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e. V.; VDMA) draws a comparison with the previous year.

Cast semis account for about a quarter of the global consumption of aluminium products, while their key consumer is the transport industry, first of all, the automotive industry. The automotive industry consumes over 60 % of the world's cast products. The further development of the cast products consumption in the world in the next ten years will be greatly facilitated by a fast growth in demand for electric vehicles.

Magnesium die casting has an enormous field of application: Many different engineering disciplines benefit from the special material properties of this non-ferrous metal.

We made the reality check and asked 560 users from different industries. The evaluation of the results confirmed our theses, but also surprised us. We have summarized all results in a white paper for you.

In 2013, the IMA published the study "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Magnesium Components in Vehicle Construction," which was written by the Institute of Vehicle Concepts of the German Aerospace Center. This report details the results of the update.

One of the next decades’ goals will be a further reduction of emissions to lower the growing environmental impact. Considering this, light metals as construction materials are generally viewed to become critical in the future.

Metal processing with lasers and plasma releases pollutants into the ambient air. The Fraunhofer IWS, together with partners, has developed a filter system that efficiently removes these substances from the air. The filter can be adapted to the various materials and substances. In the future, the technology will be used in other applications, such as additive manufacturing.

Cast aluminum parts have a huge potential for functional integration, which is a fundamental concept in light weight design. At LKR Leichtmetallkompetenzzentrum Ranshofen (LKR) a test geometry has been developed to enable coupon and component testing from one single cast part with minimum geometrical influence.

In the digital production world, machines from different manufacturers must be able to communicate with each other. This requires uniform standards, which VDMA – the German engineering Association – is playing a major role in developing: the OPC UA Companion Specifications.

The KUKA cell4_premachining gives foundries more time and flexibility thanks to its 13-fold tool changer. The harmonized collaboration between the robot, positioner and motor spindle reduces the amount of heavy physical work involved in deburring, sawing, milling or grinding.