News

Casting designers and buyers: Metalcasting Congress has programs for you

AFS is offering a compelling educational program for casting designers, buyers and specifiers at Metalcasting Congress 2020, April 21-23 at the Huntington Convention Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

The demand for these sessions at last year’s event drove attendance past expectations by 33%. AFS has indications that the sessions this year will be just as popular as they were in 2019.

The Designers & Buyers Track is a slate of highly targeted programming for engineers, procurement specialists, quality control personnel, and anyone who designs or purchases metal castings for their OEMs or related businesses. Industry experts will provide insights and tips on the latest technology, sourcing strategies, and other advancements they can use to improve their products and their bottom lines.

Sessions will be held in The Hub, on the show floor, providing easy access to the Cast in North America section of Metalcasting Congress 2020, which features exhibits by many of North America’s leading metalcasters. Metalcasting Congress is the industry's leading education and networking event in North America.

Designers & Buyers Track sessions are included with exhibit registration. To register for Metalcasting Congress 2020, click here.

Sessions in the Designers & Buyers Track include:

Wednesday, April 22

Applying Life Cycle Analysis to Castings, Jeremy Lipshaw, Ferndale, Michigan

Life cycle analysis (LCA) is a discipline incorporating all major phases—production, use, and recycling/end-of-life—of a product to calculate total impacts. It is becoming a key tool for academics, industry analysists, and environmental regulators. Hear how LCA may affect the future of sourcing and where castings stack up in this new calculation.

Trends in Reducing Weight with Metal Castings, Andrew Halonen, Mayflower Consulting, Calumet, Michigan

Opportunities for lightweighting with metal castings abound through material choice and smart designs. Examples in iron and aluminum will be shared, along with current trends and future opportunities for reducing weight in cast components. Follow Halonen on Twitter @LW8ing.

Working with Your Foundry to Design for Manufacturability, Andy Mastalir, CA Lawton, DePere, Wisconsin

Small but important changes to a component’s design can lead to significant cost, weight, and time savings. Early design discussions with a qualified casting source will pay dividends.

Answering Your Burning Casting Sourcing Questions, Speaker TBA

An experienced casting sourcing specialist shares their experiences and answers the questions casting buyers often ask, like why are my lead times so long, what are these surcharges for, and why is this foundry no-quoting me?

Thursday, April 23

3D Printing: From Prototype to Production, Garrett Iverson, Alliant Castings, Winona, Minnesota

Advancements in additive sand technology have fostered its emergence from a prototype-only process to a process that is viable for particular production casting applications. This presentation will provide a view of how the use of additive sand for production castings will grow in the coming years.