EDITORIAL
Be Part of Something Big S
urrounding yourself with metalcasters feels good these days. I highly recommend it. In the wake of the Great Recession (around
the start of 2010), some members of the metal- casting industry started pushing optimism. T e turning point is just ahead, they promised, and good times are most certainly coming. But it didn’t quite feel right. Even if good times were just around the corner, the optimism felt like smiling at a funeral. T e optimism the industry is pushing these
days is the real deal. At the recent Metalcasting Congress in Columbus, Ohio, every metalcaster in the room told you they were running full out, hand-picking the best jobs for their operations rather than scrounging for them, and it felt right this time. T e good times don’t have to end in the sales
department. With capital once again available and enthusiasm at a high water mark, now is the time to push research and de- velopment departments to new lengths. T e industry seems to
agree—one of the fi rst technical sessions of the congress attracted more than 100 individuals, some willing to stand in the back. And this wasn’t a crowd content to stand quietly, these titans of the iron segment (truly, the lion’s share of North America’s major players were in the same room) engaged in spirited debate and conversation throughout the day. Other segments of the
In his keynote lecture at the end of the annual
conference, John Campbell, professor emeritus at the Univ. of Birmingham, U.K., drove the message home. “Stop pouring,” he said. T e fi rst few times I read promotional piec- es for Campbell’s talk, I thought I was reading a typo. T is industry has been pouring for thousands of years. It just didn’t make sense. Campbell made sense of
T e good times don’t
have to end in sales. With capital once again in abundance and enthusiasm at a high
water mark, now is the time to push research and development departments to new lengths.
industry joined in. From sessions on alternative molding materials to complex heat treatment issues, audience members weren’t asking the usual token questions about procedures or trying to trip present- ers up on their methods. T ese were real metalcast- ers asking questions that mattered to them so they could improve their operations. It felt great. It felt like we were getting some-
where. Indeed, it felt like the combination of soaring sales and engineering enthusiasm could lead to a true turning point for this industry. It felt like now is the time to shake off the past and say: “we can reimagine this process and become a zero-defect industry.”
it. Casting is a process that inherently creates a certain percentage of defective parts. By thinking more carefully about how we introduce metal into the mold, we can change that. Of course, none of this optimism adds up to a metal spill unless the in- dustry can work together to maintain its momen- tum. Research develop- ments are driven—and perhaps more impor- tantly given focus—by you. T e grassroots of the industry. T e real metalcasters. T e guys and gals who ask ques- tions about what all this high-brow experimenta- tion means for them on a daily basis. Without your input,
pure research will pre- vail, technologies will develop from competing angles and real improve- ment will never come about. So fi nd yourself another metalcaster.
Talk about what’s going on out there. I think you’ll feel good about it.
Shea Gibbs, Managing Editor
If you have any comments about this editorial or any other item that appears in MODERN CASTING, email me at
sgibbs@afsinc.org.
May 2012 MODERN CASTING | 7
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