Iron Metallurgy
basics
Here are a couple of metallurgical tidbits for you. I was going through some old trade journals when I leafed through the August 2007 issue of modern casting magazine. That issue had two back-to-basics-type articles by the AFS’s 5-L committee on Liquid Metal Processing (that committee’s functions are now covered by the 5-P committee).
The first article was written by the late Fred Linebarger
(great person, great engineer). It discussed
nodularity testing. The second is about
chill-wedge testing which is a low-cost test that can be very useful in the gray
iron casting process. These are topics that
should be intimate to anyone buying and selling ductile iron or ADI castings. I can’t quite locate these articles on the
modern casting website but I will follow up with them to see if a link is
available.
Some Vision in Rail
The July issue of Progressive Railroading has a piece by Greg Grissom of GREX (I have not met Greg). In the PDF version it is page 17. Greg discusses some big-picture ideas, one of which is likely interesting to readers of this blog:
“Visionary people in R&D focused railroad and supplier companies will continue to drive the industry forward. All-time high levels of capital spending by Class I railroads, coupled with the technology advances fueled by many research partnerships (for example AAR, FRA, Volpe, universities and supplier R&D), will continue to improve safety and drive down the track-caused accident rate as seen over the last decade. Supplier R&D investment combined with strong railroad partnerships continue to support the ongoing challenges of increased capacity and increased safety, and allows for more efficient resource allocation. Railroads have guided suppliers to be sure technology developments maintain a focus on minimizing track time, combining technology offerings on common inspection platforms and employing useful data reporting. This two-way communication fuels innovation and streamlines development for the next solution.”
The rail industry use a lot of castings. I hope casting suppliers take it upon themselves to meet the challenge of such collaborations. To do so, suppliers have to do more than be “order-takers” – they have to do the legwork that allows for growth in the casting market – they need to be “order-makers.”
More Rail
The same magazine features this piece confirming what I heard anecdotally, and which should be common knowledge for casting salespeople. Specifically, car builds and especially tank car builds are still very strong from the North American energy boom:
“In the first quarter (of 2014), rail-car orders totaled 24,050 units … Although tank-car order activity continues to dominate the freight-car environment, officials at Economic Planning Associates Inc. (EPA) say they are “enthused” by the strong recent growth in demand for mid-sized and small-cube covered hoppers, as well as the high level of backlogs for hi-cube equipment. Demand for tank cars, covered hoppers still strong, EPA says.”
Freight rates stay high
Heavy Duty Trucking magazine offer the monthly North American Spot Freight Index. That journal states the following, suggesting a strengthening economy still fraught with uncertainty:
“Several factors appear to have contributed to record-high volume and rates on the spot truckload market this year, including disruptive weather, an improved economy, and seasonal fluctuations of freight and capacity, said DAT. As a result, shippers have increasingly relied on third-party logistics providers to meet the needs caused by the growing volume of exception freight.”
