At this year's Aalen Foundry Colloquium, the new mayor of the city of Aalen Frederick Brütting and Professor Dr. Lothar Kallien welcomed more than 200 representatives, standing in for themselves, from the foundry industry and interested students.
This year, the institution of higher education was once again able to maintain its leading position in terms of research. According to the new funding atlas of the German Research Foundation (DFG) 2021, in which the key figures of the institutions of higher education on publicly funded research are published, Aalen is ranked first in Germany for federal R&D project funding and second for DFG grant approvals.
Furthermore, according to the CHE Ranking, Aalen is among the top 10 institutions of higher education in the field (of) Business Administration, BA and Mechanical Engineering, and in the StudyCheck Award, Aalen is one of the most popular universities in Germany with a recommendation rate of 96 percent.
Prof. Kallien then explained the great advertising effectiveness of TESLA's activities in the field (of) large castings. He briefly presented current and new R&D projects in the fields (of) the use of AI in die casting, cyclic loading of zinc die casting, gas injection technology in die casting and coating of zinc die casting. Kallien thanked not only the participants, but also the ten exhibitors who showed the trade audience their innovative products as part of a table top exhibition.
This year's series of presentations began with Christian Köhler from Volkswagen AG on the topic of "Recycling to achieve CO2 and cost targets in light metal foundries". He presented the Volkswagen Group's climate targets. The first target of emitting 25% less CO2 was already achieved in 2016. In his talk; lecture, he compared the annual CO2 emissions of a cow with those of a VW Polo: the cow emits as much CO2 as a Polo after driving 38,182 km. Converted into trees: to compensate for this, 160 beech trees would be needed for an average driving distance of 20,000 km. For Volkswagen, it is clear that e-mobility is the funds, financial resources to achieve CO2 requirements. The company is continuing to focus on closing its own material cycle and substituting fossil fuels.
Siegfried Schneider from castwerk GmbH & Co. KG gave a presentation on the topic of "Thixomolding: process-quality-energy balance". Similar to injection molding, the thixomolding machine is equipped with a plasticizing unit. Instead of plastic granulate, Mg granulate is used. Mr. Schneider cited the advantages of this process as, among other things, a very good surface finish of the cast parts in addition to very good microstructures. However, the biggest advantages are the energy costs, the elimination of shielding gas and the processability of AM50/AM60. Over 3 million parts have been produced to date and demand is increasing.
Dipl.-Ing. Hermann Roos from Bühler AG spoke on the topic "The future of structural components in die casting". Mr. Roos explained that structural components are used in many fields (of). Bühler AG uses a two-platen die casting machine, which has the advantage of a better distribution of stresses when closing the mold, which in turn leads to higher casting quality. He then presented the new concept for large machines with a clamping force of 6000 tons or more in detail. For shot weights of over 200 kg, it is necessary to position the melting furnace directly on the machine. The large molds also require a twin sprayer system for release agent application.
The subsequent talk; lecture "Innovative approaches for the preparation and processing of aluminum melts" was presented by Dr.-Ing. Thomas Franco from FRECH ZPF GmbH. He reported on innovative approaches such as chip-wheel recycling, the Simulation of alternative fuel gas concepts with air preheating and AI-resistant materials. He refuted the assumption that only hydrogen can be used for smelting by showing the calorific value of natural gas and hydrogen in a direct comparison, whereby it was clear that natural gas has three times the calorific value.
Dr. Wolfram Stets from Foseco Nederland BV explained the topic "Impurities and inclusions in cast alloys: Impact, measurement and avoidance". He differentiated between exogenous impurities, i.e. impurities introduced from outside, and endogenous impurities, i.e. impurities formed in the melt. In the talk; lecture he went into the different causes and measurement methods of impurities in steel casting as well as in aluminum casting. To avoid impurities, he mentioned the cleaning of melts using salts, low-turbulence metal transfer and casting as well as the filtration of the melt.
The degree was rounded off with short presentations by the exhibitors.
The first day ended with the traditional foundrymen's evening, where every year there is a lively exchange of experiences between the foundrymen and the students.
The next morning, Frank Neumann started with the presentation of the German Zinc Casting Award of the student organization Zink e.V.: in the security and locking technology category, he presented a door locking system from Groß Druckguss GmbH. In the Lifestyle category, a turn signal from Siegfried Müller Druckguss GmbH won, while a central carrier unit for electronic, mechanical and optical components in the dental sector from Kaspar Schlüter GmbH & Co KG was the winner in the Medical Technology category. In the field (of) Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, a housing from Adolf Föhl GmbH managed to combine thinness and stability. In the sanitary technology category, a shower head from HDO Druckguss und Oberflächentechnik stood out. HDO Druckguss und Oberflächentechnik won in the mobility category with a wireless key.
Dipl.-Ing. Christoph Schendera of EFM e.V. presented the winners of the magnesium prize, which was supported by the Bundesverband der Deutschen Gießerei-Industrie e.V. (BDG), Gesamtverband der Aluminiumindustrie e.V. (GDA) and the Europäische Forschungsgemeinschaft Magnesium e.V. (EFM): 3rd place went to Dynacast for a painting unit for a coffee machine. The component was made of magnesium instead of plastic. Torun Bark Magnesium GmbH was runner-up with its table top for a circular saw. GF Casting Solutions AG was the winner with a cross car beam. The integration of functions and the utilization of the entire installation space were convincing here. Prof.-Dr. Lothar Kallien then presented the results in the field (of) zinc and aluminum die casting. He began by talking about the winners in the aluminum category. First place went to a one-piece upper shell of a rear axle carrier made of die-cast aluminum from Albert Handtmann GmbH. Second place was shared by Alupress AG and BMW Leichtmetallgießerei. Matthies Druckguss GmbH took third place with a housing with a 3D-printed mold core. The winners in the zinc category were then presented: 1st place went to Siegfried Müller GmbH for an assembly of 3 die-cast parts, followed by a gearshift handle from HDO- Druckguss und Oberflächentechnik GmbH, and a clamping plate from Teilemacherei GmbH.
The topic "Innovation in hot chamber die casting: hot runner, coating and climate neutrality" was presented by Thomas Herper from Adolf Föhl GmbH. By using hot runner technology, he promises, among other things, the elimination or reduction of secondary work steps, a reduction in cycle time, energy efficiency and the elimination of recycled material. This technology is used in particular for critically realizable geometries and wall thicknesses of 0.3 mm. He also presented the Föhlan nano-coating.
The talk; lecture by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sven Roeren from roeren Gmbh dealt with the topic of "Process optimization, management and Logistics in foundries". He discussed a naïve run into e-mobility and warned against mistakes regarding niche markets. "Niches are volatile, can crumble and only pay off with high returns". He also criticized companies for allowing themselves to be forced into prices that they would be better off not accepting. His final appeal to the audience was to recognize their own Skills and find the right market for them.
Andre Dylong B. Eng. from Druckguss Service Deutschland presented the topic
"Vertical casting using the DuoCast principle". The DuoCast principle is the casting of two components in one shot. The mold is filled vertically. According to Dylong, this avoids air inclusions as there is none in front of the gate. It should also be possible to cast two different parts on one machine with two molds. The cycle time should be reduced by 12 seconds with this principle compared to conventional casting. One disadvantage he cited was that if one half of the machine breaks down, the other half also breaks down.
This concluded the lectures, technical lectures and was followed by the latest research results from Aalen University of Applied Sciences in the field (of) foundry technology. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Feldmann started with the latest findings on the project "Artificial intelligence for the assessment, rating of casting defects". He explained that the correlation of process data (shot curve) and the assessment, rating of the results of the X-ray images can be used to identify significant fields of the shot curve that lead to defects. X-ray images could be labeled using a mixture of statistics and AI-based processes, he said. He also said that expert knowledge on defect classification could be mapped into the AI and defects such as porosity and cold running could be analyzed via a CNN. Further sources of defects are to be implemented in the future and complex component geometries are also to be analyzed.
Fabian Schnuse B. Eng. gave an overview of current research on the topic
"Practical application of AI and zinc and aluminum die castings". The application of AI could detect defects with a certainty of 100%. Neural networks should be able to be trained by self-generated surface images. The classification works not only for the components used for training, but also to a certain extent for any components and materials.
The talk; lecture by Dr.-Ing. Marcel Becker, who moved to Frech in March after 10 years in the foundry laboratory, was about salt cores in die casting. Becker began by discussing salt materials and defined a flexural strength of at least 20MPa for his scheme, enterprise, aim, goal. Next, he examined the thermophysical influences of salt cores in the die casting process. Here he pointed out the poor thermal conductivity of the salt core, which has an influence on solidification. He was able to carry out successful casting tests with a complex salt core geometry for an A-pillar. It was possible to pour around the salt cores with a flow velocity of 60m/s due to the additional core supports. The results are summarized in his doctoral thesis, doctoral dissertation.
Daniel Schwarz M. Sc. gave a talk; lecture on the topic "Multi-material composites for hybrid lightweight construction". Here, CFRP blanks were overmoulded with aluminum and magnesium. It turned out that significantly higher wall thicknesses can be cast around magnesium. He also presented a CFRP fiber-reinforced battery housing.
The talk; lecture by Dipl. Ing. Thomas Weidler dealt with the topic "Magweb fabric-reinforced magnesium die casting". Here, different fabrics were recast in the die casting process. An increase in the yield strength depending on the fabric content was achieved.
Christos Mangos M. Sc., the foundry laboratory's zinc die casting specialist, presented two new research projects: Hydrogen and the galvanic coatability of zinc die castings, a follow-up project investigating the formation of bubbles caused by the hydrogen produced during cathodic degreasing, and "Zynk casting", a new scheme, enterprise, aim, goal, to investigate the cyclic properties of zinc die castings. Both schemes, enterprise, aim, goal and research project are accompanied by an exceptionally large industrial commission, which documents the great interest of the industry in these topics.
The series of lectures was concluded by Florian Mäuser M.Sc. with the presentation of the project "Gas injection for the production of hollow component structures in die casting". The aim of the new scheme, enterprise, goal is to create hollow structures by gas injection in order to save material for weight reduction or to form hollow channels. A new gas injection system was developed as part of an EU project. Components such as the electric motor housing with a hollow channel were successfully produced.
To the satisfaction of all participants, a traditional Swabian lunch was served at the degree of the Aalen Foundry Colloquium: Maultaschen and potato salad.
