What are you expecting from this year’s GIFA trade fair?
After Covid, everyone wants to restore and re-energise their industry relationships with suppliers and customers, and that will make this year's event really special. There will be plenty of big issues to discuss: cutting costs and reducing energy consumption, improving sustainability, the need for digitalisation and the continuing growth of lightweighting.
But that's just the start. The ongoing reshoring from China back into Europe and North America, remote support, equipment automation that helps the many foundries struggling to recruit employees: all of these will get a lot of attention at GIFA this year.
Is sustainability now the top priority for foundries?
Material costs are high and energy is expensive, so cost reduction is the key goal for foundries. Along with their customers – the OEMs – they are also pushing for lower emissions. Of course, these are interlinked. If you can decrease energy consumption and waste, you save a lot of money and reduce your carbon footprint at the same time.
Because it's such an energy-intensive industry, some say foundries and decarbonisation don’t mix?
I’d say to those people that they’re coming at the topic from the wrong angle. Cutting emissions is actually a huge opportunity because decarbonisation goes hand-in-hand with cost reduction and competitive advantage. At the last GIFA, sustainability was much more of an "add-on" discussion, but now you can’t really separate it from the rest of the business.
For example, minimising a component's carbon content is becoming vital to win new contracts. By reshoring, OEMs want to reduce supply chain risk and transport costs but cutting the carbon embedded in shipping also makes producing closer to the final assembly facility and end customer more attractive.
A commitment to sustainability also helps attract new foundry workers, something the industry is really struggling with right now; millennials in particular want to work for greener businesses.
Will sustainability feature in Norican's presence at this year's show?
We signed up to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2021 and it's no exaggeration to say that reducing our carbon footprint now drives everything we do. Our R&D teams constantly strive to cut energy use, whether it's ultra-efficient melting or minimising compressed air consumption in the DISAMATIC D5. With our SBTi experience, we can also support our customers in their own emission reduction programmes.
Norican has always made sustainable machines – meaning they produce high quality parts and work reliably for decades with minimum maintenance – but we won't have any on our stand this year, cutting out the emissions involved in transporting heavy machinery across the globe. Instead, our GIFA booth will have video, 3D simulations and other digital media, and is designed to be recycle-friendly.
That reflects Norican's long history in digital innovation, which we see as an absolutely vital enabler of both sustainability and competitiveness. It supplies the data that supports Scope 1-3 measurement and monitoring but, more importantly, data-driven process optimisation is the only way to find the substantial improvements in efficiency and scrap reduction we're all looking for.
How is the global push towards net zero changing our industry?
In automotive, the transition to EV is certainly moving faster than anticipated, and that is having a huge impact. Because melting aluminium is so energy-intensive and more OEMs are combining smaller components into single "giant" castings, it’s a huge opportunity for suppliers to innovate with solutions that support foundries in their mission to produce larger, lighter and greener parts.
StrikoWestofen and ItalPressGauss really are leading here, by building modular giant die casting machines and minimising energy consumption with shaft melting furnaces, in-cell melting and digitally-optimised refilling. We’re also seeing more foundries starting to adopt green sand moulding for casting smaller light alloy parts as they realise the cost, flexibility and speed advantages it offers.
Sand reclamation is another win-win, cutting out a lot of waste and emissions while driving down costs. Norican's recent acquisition of Simpson brings sand reclamation into our portfolio, along with very energy-efficient mullers for sand mixing. I believe sand reclamation will soon be almost obligatory to satisfy OEM carbon-content requirements and, given the short payback time on sand reclaim equipment, it's a logical business choice.
Is digitalisation really the best way forward for foundries?
Yes, completely! Digital isn't just about scrap, a data-based view of production helps you improve everywhere and, as you evolve digitally, you keep improving. And, with so many experienced workers retiring, digital retains their vital knowledge and puts it to work.
Whatever your size or digital maturity, a cloud platform like Monitizer delivers real value very quickly. You can start your digital journey with just one machine and pre-built, foundry-specific dashboards, then connect extra equipment later on.
During Covid, Norican pivoted to digitally-enabled remote support. It was born of necessity but it's very popular with our customers. Not flying engineers around the world makes remote support options faster, lower cost and more sustainable too. DISA has now remotely installed and commissioned multiple complete foundry lines, using technologies like augmented reality to guide the local team.
We've introduced many other practical digital innovations, like our DETECT remote monitoring service that alerts you when your DISA machine needs attention and suggests the best action to take. Digital is redefining what’s possible across cost and scrap reduction, sustainability, remote support and far beyond – for all foundries.
