Inside EICF


Knowledge and Expertise Supporting the European Investment Casting Industry: An Interview with Jean-François Donchery


Jean-François is a Doctor of Science Corpusculaire and Engineer by E.N.S.P.M. and graduated from the World Commerce Institute. Most of his professional life has been linked with the study, development and sales of premium cast alloys and superalloys. Since 1969, he has been associated with Cannon-Muskegon (CM) as the Director of CM’s European Office. In 2008, he founded AMA Services and is Chairman of the company. He continues to direct the staff of AMA services in managing European sales for Cannon-Muskegon.


In continuation of EICF’s series on


“Key People in the Industry,” we spoke with Jean-François Donchery...


Q A


Q A


How long have you been involved with or related with the


investment casting industry?


I have been involved with the investment casting industry


since 1969, but became more heavily involved in 1974 which accounts for 50 years of experience.


How did you first become involved with the investment


casting industry?


In 1969, I was just appointed by the distributor of Henry Wiggin


UK Hereford to develop Henry Wiggin products in Aircraft blend industry. Henry Wiggin (today a PCC


company) was producing wrought nickel and cobalt base alloys (ingot, bar, plate, sheet, tube, wire etc…) but also had a division to produce air melt alloys such as Nimocast series (PE10, C242…) for investment casting applications. In 1973, during one of my trips to the United States, I was in touch with Cannon-Muskegon of


14 ❘ May 2019 ®


which George Cannon was the owner and CEO.


At that time, Cannon-Muskegon


was producing mainly air melted alloy (not AOD yet) but had 2 vacuum furnaces of small capacity (V1 since 1955 and V2 since 1958 – 2,000 lb capacity). In 1975, CM invested in a larger


furnace (V3) with capacity of 8000 lb. This was the beginning of my regular involvement with CM. CM appointed Ken Harris in 1975 to


become the VP of Technology. Ken has been the key person to develop CM’s single crystal alloy program with alloys developed such as (CMSX2,3,4…) but also DS alloys such as CM247 LC. He also has worked to improve many other equiax alloys. Ken was the first to develop very clean alloys, measuring and reducing trace elements. I was also in touch with French


investment casting companies like, Microfusion which became later Howmet, and with Snecma Gennevilliers, which is still in place under the name Safran.


Q A


After all that time, what are the main changes affecting


the sector that you have seen and experienced?


Since that time, we saw a revolution in alloy production, and in customer operation. I will speak about alloys because


this is the part in which I have been involved. In 1969, few producers were


speaking about gas contents of O2 and N2 which were not listed in the specification. Also in that year, we recognized the importance of trace elements and their impact to the quality


of casting process and yields. In February 1970, The General


Electric Co. issued the development specification P Z9TF XX-1T which created acceptable limits for trace elements for cast nickel and cobalt base super alloys. It supplements the requirements


specified in the parent material specification. Let us first review four basic terms that are important: • An alloy is a substance that has metallic properties and is composed of 2 or more chemical elements at least one of which is an elemental metal.


• An alloying element is added to a metal to effect changes in properties and it remains within the metal.


• A residual element is one that is present in an alloy in very small quantities but is not added intentionally.


Example of residual elements: • Cu, Ni, Cr, Mo in Carbon steel, Cu, Mo, V in stainless steel


• Fe, V and Cu in nickel or Co base alloys These residual elements usually are


recognized and have either a minimum effect on end use or properties or no effect at all. A trace element is an element present in an alloying element that may or may not be detrimental to the final alloy.


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