Volume 100, No. 3 • March 2010


www.moderncasting.com Cover: Design by Michael Berrafato, art director; photo courtesy of Rice Univ. Public Affairs/News Media Relations. Features COVER STORY 27 Nano’s Frontier


If you think tiny particles making metals super strong sounds like sci-fi , think again. S. Wetzel


32 Regaining Lost Ground


Our global forecast indicates production will rebound, but capacity will be reduced. K. Kirgin


37 Astech Pillages the Wear Parts Market Wear parts specialist Astech Inc. now has its pirate’s gaze on the general casting market.


S. Gibbs 42 7 Lessons From a Recovering Business


A veteran industry consultant looks at seven lessons from a recent turnaround project. D. Marcus


47 Lower Your Heat Treatment Cycle Times


A new method of determining the temperature of a heat treatment load can allow operators to stop the cycle at just the right time. T. Karnezos and R. Voigt


52 CastExpo’10 Preview CastExpo Schedule (p. 53) • Special Events (p. 53) • Technical Program (p. 54) • List of Exhibitors (p. 60) • Casting Technology Showcase (p. 64)


Web Site-Only Article—


Three Methods of Reducing Seacoal by Adding Graphite Into Green Sand Molds While the use of graphite in green sand molding is nothing new, its environmental effects have not been seriously considered, until now. V. LaFay and G. Crandell


Columns


9 Editorial Too Many Old Dogs Need Some New Tricks—A.T. Spada 25 Washington Alert Waterman & Associates 76 Cast TIP Controlling Refractory Coatings—AFS Technical Department 77 Novel Solutions Poorly Made Is a Rich Read—S. Wetzel


Departments


3 Hotline 11 Industry News 22 Personals


22 Industry Faces 23 Calendar 78 AFS/CMI News


80 Classifi eds 87 Advertisers’ Index 88 Shakeout


p. 47 p. 37 p. 27


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