Growing the Pie- The 115th AFS Casting Congress

The Applied Process team is just back from the 115th American Foundry Society Casting Congress in Schaumburg, Illinois and it was a good one.  Everybody is bouncing back nicely from the Great Recession and demand for castings is rising smartly.  Demand for Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) is no exception.  Visitors stopped by the AP booth and shared their experiences (and Dr. Kathy's home-made cookies).

Numerous attendees were actively looking for equipment to increase the throughput and productivity of their metal casting plants.  At the Hoyt Memorial Lecture, Denny Dotson, of Dotson Iron Castings (www.dotson.com ) raised the curtain a bit on Saugus 2, a collaborative "foundry in a box" that is slated to be the first greenfield cast iron foundry in the US since 1974.......principal customer, location and collaborators to be announced…..but he claims they’ll be “pouring iron in 2013”.

Kathy Hayrynen chaired panels and presented on the AFS Cast Iron Committee's activities while I presented the paper "ADI- A Green Alternative" in both design and marketing sessions.  Vasko, Justin and Henry visited with customers both existing and potential.

Discussions abounded about conversions from steel and aluminum castings, weldments and forgings to ADI……and we’re up to the challenge.  I don't know yet what the final attendance was but the papers were well attended, the show traffic was steady and the mood was positive.  It’s great to see our metal casting industry smiling again.