Foundry technology goes global at GIFA 94.

More than 750 exhibitors from 38 countries displayed the most advanced technology available today, further demonstrating the continued globalization of the metalcasting industry

In German, it's called Giesserei Faschausstellung. Translated to English, it is called Foundry Trade Exhibition. But metalcasters of all languages simply refer to it as GIFA. And every five years, tens of thousands of metalcasters from nearly every continent and country make their way to Dusseldorf, Germany, to see the best metalcasting technology in the world.

No metalcasting technique, operation or process were left uncovered during the 8th International Foundry Trade Fair held June 15-22 at the Messe (Fairground) in Dusseldorf. And beyond the new technical developments exhibited at the eight-day event, GIFA 94 clearly demonstrated the foundry industry has become a world wide enterprise.

Organized by the German Foundrymen's Assn. and Dusseldorf Trade Shows, GIFA has grown considerably in international participation since its outset in 1956. That first GIFA featured 428 exhibitors--including 71 from outside the borders of the then West Germany. By 1984, total exhibitor participation had grown to 509 with 205 foreign companies.

GIFA 89 attracted 624 exhibitors, including 266 non-German companies from 28 countries. This most recent exhibition continued the rising trend of international participation as 372 foreign companies from 38 nations were included among the 755 total firms exhibiting this year. The 38,517 square meters (about 414,600 sq ft) of exhibits this year also surpassed the 38,000 square meters (409,000 sq ft) of foundry equipment and materials shown in 1989.

As expected, German firms dominated the GIFA 94 exhibition as 383 occupied 21,855 square meters of space. Italy was the leading foreign exhibitor with 76 companies, followed by Great Britain with 53, the U.S. and France with 42 firms apiece and Switzerland with 29. Other North American participation included three companies from Canada, and Mexico's first GIFA appearance, with one firm.

International Attendance

GIFA 94 was held concurrently with two other major exhibitions--METEC 94, the 4th International Exhibition for Metallurgical Technology and Equipment, and THERMPROCESS 94, the 6th International Exhibition for Industrial Furnace and Thermic Production Processes. Together, the three shows drew 71,000 visitors from 98 countries.

While an attendance breakdown of each exhibition was not available at press time, estimates are that more than 50% of the visitors to the three events were from countries other than Germany. Of foreign attendees, 36% came from overseas, with a majority from the U.S., India, Brazil and Japan.

Growing U.S. Presence

Compared with their 1989 exhibit area, U.S.-based companies more than tripled their participation in GIFA. This year, 42 U.S. exhibitors occupied 1657 square meters (17,830 sq ft) of exhibit space. In 1989, 26 U.S.-based firms exhibited and purchased exhibit space totaling 497 square meters (5350 sq ft).

Of these 42 companies, 16 were head-quartered in the U.S. Pavilion--five more than when the first U.S. Pavilion was organized in 1989.

A Game Plan for Coverage

From an editor's standpoint, covering GIFA is a daunting task. Even with two of us on the job this year, covering every exhibit would require each of us visiting an average 50 booths a day. Add to this meetings with publishers and editors from most of the major metalcasting publications, as well as a host of others from nearly every country. Add some time helping out in the AFS booth in the U.S. Pavilion, and nine hours a day just don't go too far.

So in planning our coverage of GIFA, our criteria was to visit every active modern casting advertiser, speak with someone in the booth and ask them, "What's new?" We picked up selected literature and, in many cases, took a photograph of the booth. Generally, our visits ranged from 20 minutes to an hour.

In addition, we stopped at dozens of other stands looking for interesting new developments. Whenever possible, we attempted to speak with someone in the booth and asked for available English-language brochures. We also inquired about a product's availability in North America.

In total, we visited and interviewed people at more than 200 booths. The following report, in large part, reflects this game plan. While it is necessarily concise and not inclusive of every company we visited, upcoming issues of modern casting will bring you more of what we saw at GIFA 94.

Molding & Coremaking

Many of the mold and coremaking equipment displays at GIFA were so massive and featured so many products that it became a challenge to pinpoint what was new. Disamatic, for example, displayed a wide variety of complete molding systems, not to mention new robotics and casting cleaning equipment. The Dynapuls molding system uses the principles of impulse molding and adds compaction rods to further compact the mold. The rods pneumatically penetrate the sand to preset depths, depending upon the pattern's contour and geometry.

On the core side, Disa featured its Combi-Core system. Rather than blowing sand into the corebox, this system, with the use of compressed air, extrudes or forces the sand and binder into the corebox in a controlled fashion starting with the end of the core cavity.

George Fischer Foundry Systems also exhibited an array of equipment and systems for various sand and molding operations. Their Impact-Plus molding unit uses a two-phased air wave system. The first provides precompaction while the second high-energy wave assures even compaction around the pattern's contour. Introduced at GIFA was a further refinement of this system: a flexible squeeze pad that provides additional compaction after the impact cycle.

Laempe (Laempe + Reich in the U.S.) exhibited what it calls the "Smallest Foundry in the World." The Core/Mold Center LCM is described as a closed system with only one operator and one combined set of tooling for cores and molds. Capable of both short and long production runs, the system simultaneously produces a complete mold, including two cores, ready for casting. To take it a step further, the addition of a robot yields a completely automated system.

New green sand core equipment, a fine sand slinger and a green sand middle mold system were highlighted at the Heinrich Wagner Sinto booth (Roberts Sinto in the U.S.). The middle mold system features a horizontal three part mold that allows doubling of castings produced in the same mold from a single pour.

Along with its established line of automatic flaskless matchplate molding machines, Hunter Automated Machinery also featured its space-saving turntable mold handling systems which, in addition to automating mold handling, enhance pouring operations and provides integral fume control.

Vulcan Engineering displayed a wide range of engineering services, foundry cleaning, grinding, mold handling and robotic systems. The highlight of their GIFA booth was their lost foam (EPC) systems. Along with the equipment, Vulcan displayed various foam patterns and castings in production (including GM's Saturn subsidiary).

An automated coremaking system called Eurocor was highlighted by Redford-Carver. Available for vertically and horizontally parted tooling, this system can be used for coldbox and heat-cured processes. It features a video operator interface to control the entire operation including cycle progress, diagnostics and maintenance.

Direct Shell Production Casting (DSPC), developed by Soligen, Inc., was demonstrated in the Ashland Chemical stand. The DSPC process makes ceramic shells similar to those used in investment casting directly from a CAD file without tooling, wax or shell dipping.

Brunswick Industrial demonstrated its automatic single-stage jolt-squeeze machine. The entire system is comprised of only seven components and, reportedly, reduces sand consumption by 25% and eliminates strike-off operations.

Mold/Coremaking Materials

A variety of developments was on display, ranging from resins to organic and inorganic binder systems to coatings. Nearly anything a sand foundry needs to produce complete cores and molds was available in the Ashland Chemical booth. These included coldbox, nobake, heat-cured binders systems, refractory coatings, core adhesives, release agents and various metallurgical chemicals. Also featured were Ashland's value-added services such as environmental, health and safety programs.

The development of new inorganic binder system described as "essentially a warmbox, warm air cured" product and called Cordiss was discussed at Borden's Foundry and Industrial Resins' stand. Though not yet available in the U.S., the new system is under development to meet many of the new environmental and health regulations confronting foundries. Borden also featured its complete line of coatings and specialty products for core and moldmaking operations.

In addition to its established line of bentonite products, American Colloid Company displayed its Hevi-Sand. This chromite sand has been developed for difficult metalcasting applications to reduce and eliminate casting burn-on, penetration and veining.

Described as an "environmentally friendly" system, Foseco's Ecolotec is a one-part water-based binder that is cured with C[O.sub.2]. The resin is free from isocyanates and peroxides, and the levels of free phenol and free formaldehyde are very low. This system was developed by high-volume, automated coremaking.

Hydrobond was featured by Bentonite Corp. It is described as the "first water-tempered synthetic bentonite designed, rather than mined, for green sand molding." Available in various mixtures, this clay product reportedly can be modified to equal the performance of sodium bentonite and calcium bentonite.

Sand Testing

Sand testing equipment was also a hot topic among GIFA exhibits. One such item was George Fischer's new Sand MultiTester PMT. In one instrument, test samples of resin-hardened sands and green sand are produced and 11 important physical properties are determined. Values are shown on the instrument display, and can be saved and printed for recording.

Displayed from the Hartley Controls booth was the automatic bond determinator. The unit automatically tests and controls sand moisture, compactibility, green strength and bond percentage, and compensates for bond burnout. With no operator required, the unit offers computer accuracy, speed and reliability.

Along with its cooling, mixing and reclamation machines, National Engineering Co. demonstrated its Simpson/Gerosa sand lab equipment. The universal sand strength machine offers microprocessor technology and electronic load cells to automatically test calculations. The firm also described the fully computerized sand machine that will be released in 1995. It downloads data so no manual charting is required. Incorporating electronic calibrations, it includes information on stress straining curves, green deformation, maximum strength, deformation and failure.

Melting Equipment/Materials

Among the developments at GIFA were automatic pouring and inoculation.

At the Inductotherm booth, the Visipour automatic pouring system was highlighted. A self-adjusting metal pouring control system, it consists of a video camera, computer, position controller for positioning and servo-controls for the stopper-rod mechanism for accurate mold filling. After memorizing the initial pouring routine, the software analyzes the video images to determine if the metal flow rate has been altered by a change in bath level or reduction in nozzle diameter, and compensates for these changes in metal flow rate.

The IsoPour inoculation unit was on display at ABB Metallurgy's exhibit. Consisting of an integrated intermediate ladle used as a pressurized pouring furnace for inoculating and alloying cast iron, it controls melt treatment immediately before pouring. Also featured was the firm's IFM medium frequency coreless furnace, which reduces noise emissions to admissible levels.

Unveiling its pouring furnace with coreless inductor was Junker, Inc. A compact, high-powered coreless induction furnace, it provides easy access to all furnace areas, is easy to deslag, can be totally emptied for extended down periods, allows fast changing of alloy and efficient stirring. Also featured was the firm's high turbulence mixer, unheated pouring devices and Duo-Melt tandem melt operation.

Ajax Magnethermic answered attendees' questions on its line of induction melting equipment, including the Pacer Melting System. From simple melt and pour systems to sophisticated computer-controlled melt shops, Ajax product lines cover induction melting equipment of all sizes up to 1500 tons.

The new LaserPour PLC system for cope and drag lines was demonstrated by Selcom, Inc. Designed for high accurate close-loop control of iron from a bottom-pour vessel, the unit's laser light continuously determines the distance from the measurement probe to any surface. The unit achieves [+ or -]5 mm tolerance for metal level, and allows post-cycle changes for special situations, such as if the casting requires high ferro-static pressure for proper mold fill.

American Colloid Company showcased its Maxofluss nonferrous melt preparations. The line includes dust and emission reduced powders, fluorine-free modifying tablets, chlorine-free grain refining and degassing tablets, and melt preparations. Maxolin core/mold coatings were also featured.

Introducing foundries to transistorized induction melting, Pillar Industries unveiled its Mark 10 power supply. A technology used in induction heating, the unit is a voltage-fed inverter with a series tuned furnace circuit, which requires switching the full current that flows through the coil. It eliminates energy-absorbing reactive components, provides added protection with a current limiting factor, and a crowbar thyristor protects the IGBT transistor in the event of an abnormal condition.

To improve inoculant effectiveness, Foseco featured the MSI 90-68E automatic late stream inoculation system. The system includes advanced monitoring functions, a high standard of inoculant dispensing reproducibility and a control unit fitted with a printer port. It ensures that the addition is made just as the iron flows into the mold. Concentrating on the V-Cast and Dry-Vibe product lines, Allied Mineral promoted its refractories for automatic pouring, channel furnaces and new product developments in induction melting steel.

In addition to the firm's silicon metal, ferroalloys and inoculants, Globe Metallurgical, Inc. highlighted the Inmold process and the newly patented Sigmat process for making ductile iron. The Inmold process consists of pouring low-sulfur ductile-base iron into a mold in which the magnesium pickup by the iron controls the ductile iron microstructure. The Sigmat process is a variation of the Inmold process--outside the mold. The iron is poured into a tightly sealed box and the flow rate is matched to the consumption of the alloy in the box.

Casting Handling/Treatment

With every step of casting handling and treatment represented at GIFA, a few areas are outlined here.

Among the products featured at Didion's booth was its new rotary media drum that combines shakeout, sand conditioning/screen, casting cleaning and cooling in one step. Also highlighted was the rotary lump crusher/sand reclaimer, which crushes, scrubs, screens and classifies large mold lumps to reusable grain size, while automatically discharging tramp metal and debris from the drum.

Featuring surface preparation equipment, Wheelabrator Corp. displayed its line of blastcleaning equipment. This included the Super II Tumblast batch machine, the SW/210 Spinner Hanger for cavernous and odd-shaped work, and continuous operation models such as the Wire Mesh Belt and the Ultrablast.

Demonstrating the "3-in-1" process to remove sand from castings, reclaim it and heat treat castings in one step was Consolidated Engineering Co. A new development provides a single collection source for all waste gases from coremaking and captures and destroys gases from pouring. The unit's single-stream processing burns out sand, heat treats to T6 and, after cooling, reuses the sand for cores. A fluidized bed volatilizes binder to clean sand grains.

In addition to vibrating drums and conveyor systems, General Kinematics demonstrated its new Vibra-Mill VMC nobake sand processor for sand reclamation. The unit's low volume of air flow maintains cooling as lump breaking takes place, and air turbulence and sand tumbling remove heat. Tramp material and fines are separated and sand is discharged at the original grain size distribution.

U.S. Pavilion

As a cost-effective channel for American firms to exhibit under one collective front, AFS, the CISA Export Trade Group and Dusseldorf Trade Shows joined in sponsoring the U.S. Pavilion. Offering participants an exhibitor's lounge, translators and added exposure, the U.S. Pavilion featured:

Adolf's Pattern Shop, Inc.; AFS; Beardsley & Piper; Bentonite Corp.; Brunswick Industrial, Inc.; The Centrifugal Casting Machine Co., Inc.; CISA Export Trade Group, Inc.; Dependable Foundry Equipment Co./Redford Carver Foundry Products Co.; Didion Manufacturing Co.; Equipment Merchants International, Inc.; Fibre-Glass Evercoat; Foundry Management & Technology; Hartley Controls Corp.; Hunter Automated Machinery Corp.; modern casting magazine; THT Presses, Inc.; and Visi-Trak Corp.

GIFA: Through the Eyes of An Editor

As a first-time traveler to GIFA, I kept an editor's diary of daily events, conversations and observations during the eight-day exhibition in Dusseldorf in June. The following are notes from one of my days.

7:18 a.m.--The AFS/modern casting contingent meets in the breakfast room at the Madison II hotel in downtown. Besides Publisher/Editor Dave Kanicki and myself, AFS is represented by Chuck Jones, executive vice president; Maria Komon, vice president finance; Bob Eppich, vice president technology; and Dave Schmidt, manager of Software Services.

8:05 a.m.--After setting up the special GIFA issue of modern casting at the AFS booth and at the GieBerei-Praxis (Foundry Practice) German trade magazine's booth, I stopped at the U.S. Pavilion lounge. Over pre-show coffee and orange juice, exhibitors are talking about the shock of the alleged O.J. Simpson murders and the massive heat wave in midwestern U.S. With that weather, no one is complaining about the cool, windy, German weather.

9:26 a.m.--During a break in action at Vulcan Engineering's booth, Parker Strom discusses his 31 years with GM and his work with Saturn. Part of the team that made the decision to go with lost foam/EPC in 1985, he says they worked 12-hour days in trailers set up around the Saturn plant. After things were running so smoothly "he eliminated his own job," Strom joined Vulcan on a "half-time, full-time basis." Vulcan, he says, is setting up lost foam lines in India, China and Germany.

10:36 a.m.--Walking the floor, I met up with Edgar Wyrwas, Wyrwas Aluminum Industries. He says he is looking for an improved sand system as well as core knockout for his shell cores. With his 25-man shop, he says finding equipment can be difficult because so much of it is designed for larger foundries. He is looking for ideas that can be engineered to a smaller scale. "Business is good," he says, "although the shop has had some headaches it hasn't had in quite some time, like meeting demand and delivering on time."

10:50 a.m.--Raymond Monroe and Malcolm Blair, Steel Founders' Society, say they met the previous day with representatives from seven nations in Dusseldorf to review ISO 9000 steel casting standards. Together with officials from Germany, France, Great Britain, China, Czech Republic and the U.K. they reviewed documents on stainless steels, heat resistant steels, corrosion resistant steel, and visual inspection, welding, centrifugal casting and ferrite measurements.

11:03 a.m.--Minutes before the news conference at DISA Technologies, Stephen Cheung, Disamatic, says the biggest market for the equipment supplier remains the U.S., although Western Europe and Japan are also being targeted. "All three are on different economic cycles," he says. "In the U.S., it is good, while Europe and Japan are on the low end." Cheung says you don't hear much about Japanese buzzwords such as kaizen anymore, and added that since Japan has never been in a recession like this before, it will be interesting to see how they do.

1:18 p.m.--Noel Hoekstra and Anne Meerboth-Maltz, Dusseldorf Trade Shows, Inc. (DTS), give Dave Kanicki and I a formal tour of Messe's press center. Each day, we check the press center's pigeonhole racks for news releases and photos from all three shows. It also includes phones, fax machines, typewriters and computers for press use, as well as a restaurant. The still expanding Messe, they say, offers 2 million sq ft of exhibit space--15 times the size of last year's CastExpo in Chicago.

1:49 p.m.--Walking the exhibit floor, I ask Paul Mikkola, GM Powertrain Group, what has impressed him thus far at GIFA. Pulling out his notebook, he highlighted a diecasting machine that features 100% filling of shotsleeves, opposed to the standard 60%. A dosing furnace allows full shot sleeve filling.

Mikkola also says another booth features a coremaking system with four different coreboxes that can replace 32 core machines with one. With this technology, an entire core department can be run with two to four people. Also, he says he examined a decoring process that places energy on a casting in one spot. The casting itself is vibrated to remove the core, rather than putting it on vibrating equipment and dealing with those problems. He also was intrigued by a lightweight cast gray iron engine block he saw at another display. "It has such thin walls you could almost see through it," he says.

2:24 p.m.--In a collective booth of South African (SA) firms, Dave Van Niekerk, Davcor, a core machine supplier, talks about the state of business in SA. He says his firm just got approval from Germany to exhibit at GIFA in January, since no nation wanted any sort of business contribution from SA or its companies until the political situation was resolved.

Over the last six months, he says SA's foundry industry (110 foundries) really turned on its heel. Plants are now at full production capacities and looking to expand, and many nations that previously had sanctions are now doing business with SA. "The normalization of the political system has been the mass of change," Van Niekerk says. "The peaceful election was a very big factor. It showed the country's workability to get it together."

Martin Reeves, Mineral-Loy, adds "This GIFA couldn't have come at a more opportune time--both for us to see new foundry technology and be seen. A couple hundred of South Africans have come to GIFA--that's a very good sign for the future." Although the nation's metalcasters aren't yet ready for much of the technology at GIFA, he says they need to see what directions to eventually take. "We don't want to head the wrong way."

Reeves said the South African Metal Casting Assn. (SAMCA), which was founded June 6, will focus on training. "We've grown up on imported skills from Europe, and we must address the issue that we don't have many black managers. In any business there is an "us vs. them" view of management, but in our case, there is the racial issue as well."

3:09 p.m.--Discussing his firm's sand regeneration unit, Bruno Bonnato, Fataluminum, says it isn't reclamation--it's regeneration--since the quality is better than new sand. Following the regeneration process, the round grain size of the sand offers better compactibility. Besides the sand regeneration equipment and piston casting machines, he says the firm is concentrating on permanent mold, low- and high-pressure diecasting and lost foam/EPC markets in North America and Asia, although Europe is looking up as well.

3:38 p.m.--Returning to the AFS Publications booth to restock modern casting issues, Bob Eppich says several Eastern European foundrymen and instructors wanted books but didn't have enough money. Two Russian foundrymen even offered to trade a bottle of vodka and 2 oz of caviar for the $10 Iron Casting Handbook. According to Eppich, the two foundrymen felt Russia has fallen 50-75 years behind the rest of the world in technology. AFS 2nd Vice President Henry Dienst, National Engineering Co., says it will take several generations to catch up, but they have the desire and are working hard for it.

3:45 p.m.--At Heinrich Wagner Sinto (known as Roberts Sinto in the U.S.), Dick Howard describes the firm's new green sand core machine. Another development is the middle mold system--an alternative to standard cope and drag molding. This system doubles casting production by using an intermediate mold. Therefore, a foundry can produce four castings from a mold instead of two. Brake drams cast via this method are on display.

4:06 p.m.--At a news conference at GEMCO, a foundry engineering firm in the Netherlands, it was announced that after two years of negotiations, the firm signed a contract to supply a $6.2 million turnkey iron foundry for Yuchai Machinery Co. Ltd., Guangxi, China. GEMCO will handle construction, installation and commissioning, and training and education. Casting six-cylinder engine blocks, the Yuchai foundry expects to supply 100,000 engines per year. The project will take 33 months to complete.

A bit different from U.S. trade show news conferences, GEMCO featured alcohol, herring, etc. At GIFA, many booths offered beer, sandwiches and soft drink, and several exhibits featured restaurant-type settings with waiters and waitresses.

Distance Walked: 6.79 miles (10.86 km).

7:11 p.m.--Jogging through the Altstadt to the Rhine River, I injured my ankle. After appointments with a general physician (who incidentally went to high school in Minnesota), a radiologist and an orthopedic surgeon, the fee (including four x-rays) totaled just 135 deutsche marks, or $84-even for an American business traveler. Discussing Germany's socialized health-care system with my future mother-in-law (a German native now living in the U.S.), she says Germans can see any doctor they wish without the need for basic medical insurance. Health care, especially for the older generation, is terrific, she says.

She says the system used to be better years ago, but as people (including doctors) began to exploit the system, coverage was reduced. A recent development are credit card-like health cards that are issued to Germans every few months. These cards contain detailed medical records that can be accessed by the office computer at each visit, rather than having to fill out time-consuming applications and forms.