Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) Gets a Boost in China; Wish you were here.

Hundreds are expected to attend the 5th China ADI Conference 7-9 August 2011 in Changchun, Jilin, China.

This week marks the 5th gathering of the China ADI Conference.  The venue is the city of Changchun in the Chinese province of Jilin.  (If you are looking for it on the map just look a few hundred miles north of the Korean border).  Loosely translated, Changchun means “long spring” but the winters here are none too short and right now the summer is quite hot.  The conference will feature dozens of papers presented by authors from several countries.  (Sorry for you non-Chinese speaking people, the language of the conference is exclusively Mandarin).  It will include an Open House at Jilin ADI, a new commercial heat treating shop (and an Austempering licensee of Applied Process Inc.) that has as its centerpiece an 80”x80”x56” Universal Batch Quench / Austemper furnace, currently the largest integral salt quench batch furnace on the planet. 

A large turnout of the hometown First Auto Works (FAW) crowd is expected.  FAW already incorporates some ADI designs in their vehicles but they are busily designing components from differential gears to multifunction suspension brackets to axle components.  To give you an idea of the scope of FAW’s importance to this town, 2011 is a down year for truck production here and they’ll still produce about 120,000 heavy trucks……one company, in one city.

China is the worldwide leader in the production of ductile iron.  In recent years the quality and capability of the ductile iron producers in China has improved markedly.  In tandem, world-class Austempering capabilities have been capitalized and ADI production in China is climbing rapidly.  Heck, they’ve even got their own, brand spankin’ new ADI standard.

If you’re so inclined, hop a plane (or two, or three) and come on out to see what’s shakin’ with ADI in the Middle Kingdom.