Soundcast news and events
Press releases, conference papers and trade fairs where the partners presented the project.
Press releases in journals and newspapers
IK4-Azterlan promoted the development of structural components at low cost in the sector newspaper Empresa XXI, published in April 2013. The paper is addressed to industries of the Basque Country and prints an average of 8,418 copies per issue.
ASCAMM issued a press release to technical journals such as Fundipress and Auto-Revista and to newspapers such as Diari de Sabadell.
Interempresas, a sector newspaper for the metal industries, carried an IK4-Azterlan item on the objectives of Soundcast in May 2013, and another on low cost structural automotive parts. Estimates put the visits to its news sections at 18,645.
In June 2013 the IK4News newsletter, circulated among 1,200 researchers and technicians of the IK4 research alliance, reported the presentation of the new secondary alloy for high ductility HPDC at the six-month project meeting.
In October 2015 IK4-Azterlan stated in the European Parliament journal Regional Review (page 20) that Soundcast is the answer to the need for democratisation of high integrity, light weight structural castings. Printed copies went to all 751 MEPs and circulated among the European Commission, the Committee of the Regions, the European Council and the 6,000 regional and municipal delegates of the Open Days week. The Parliament Magazine website receives 75,000 visits a month from institutions, companies, NGOs, regional governments and development agencies across the Union.
The Spanish science agency SINC and the magazine Estrategia Empresarial (issue 502, late November 2015) ran a piece on the automotive industry’s hunt for lighter and more sustainable alloys.
Conferences and congresses
At the NADCA Die Casting Congress and Exposition in Indianapolis (October 2012), C. Bagnoud of VDS gave an oral presentation of “Something New in Vacuum Die-Casting: ProVac Ultra Sonic Vacuum Valve”. The audience came mainly from the scientific and die casting industries.
In March 2013, AZTERLAN gave a technical teleconference at the Tabira Institute in Durango, Spain, on ductile HPDC alloys. 82 delegates from France, Sweden and Spain attended, most of them from HPDC aluminium foundries and their supply chain.
The 71st World Foundry Congress took place in Bilbao in May 2014, with more than two hundred abstracts and posters from thirty countries and 1,100 foundry professionals. The project contributed two oral papers and a Young Students’ Seminar talk. IK4-Azterlan and Eurecat (Ascamm) presented “Microstructural features of primary and secondary ductile high pressure die casting alloys for the automotive industry”, part of the work on a new secondary alloy for HPDC. TU-BS and Chem-Trend presented “Increasing the weldability of die parts by minimal lubrication”. In the Young Students’ Seminar, Ana Fernández of IK4-AZTERLAN spoke on “Manufacturing of structural parts by HPDC technology” to 82 students and technicians from universities, research centres and foundries.
At the XIII Spanish national congress on materials in Barcelona (June 2014), 276 scientists and technicians from the materials sector gathered. Eurecat, then Ascamm, and IK4-AZTERLAN presented a poster on the effect of composition on the microstructure of parts injected from primary and secondary aluminium alloys.
At the ICALEO conference on laser applications in San Diego (October 2014), with more than 500 international participants from the laser sector, TU-BS presented “Possibilities of improving weld seam quality in laser welding of aluminium die cast”.
At the European Conference on Heat Treatment and 22nd IFHTSE Congress in Venice (May 2015), 260 scientists and experts heard IK4-AZTERLAN present the heat treatment optimisation of secondary AlSi10MnMg(Fe) test parts made by vacuum assisted high pressure die casting.
At the Aluminium Two Thousand World Congress in Florence (May 2015), with more than 500 participants, IK4-AZTERLAN and EURECAT presented a paper on the effect of microstructure and casting defects on the mechanical properties of secondary AlSi10MnMg(Fe) test parts made by vacuum assisted HPDC. It appeared in Materials Today: Proceedings, volume 2, issue 10.
In November 2015 IK4-AZTERLAN organised the 3rd International Technical Forum on high pressure die casting, “Key innovation factors in High Pressure Die Casting for Structural Components”, at the Automotive Intelligence Center in Boroa, Spain. 130 delegates from HPDC aluminium foundries and their supply chain attended, and speakers came from Bühler, Nemak, Georg Fischer, Chem-Trend and IK4-Azterlan.
Papers accepted for High Tech Die Casting in Venice (June 2016): a new secondary AlSi10MnMg(Fe) alloy for ductile aluminium parts by vacuum assisted HPDC (IK4-AZTERLAN, EURECAT and RUFFINI), and laser beam welding of a highly ductile secondary HPDC aluminium alloy at reduced ambient pressure (TU-BS and Schmale & Schulte). An abstract was accepted for the 13th International Aluminium Conference in Naples (September 2016), on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the new alloy; the paper was to be published in the peer reviewed journal Advanced Materials Research.
Trade fairs
At EUROGUSS in Nuremberg (January 2014), the tenth edition of the international die casting trade fair with 470 exhibitors and 11,187 trade visitors, the project was promoted in two ways: posters, decoration and video at the stands of Chem-Trend, VDS and the research centre ASCAMM, and three leaflets handed out by Chem-Trend, VDS, ASCAMM, IK4-AZTERLAN and TU-BS.
IK4-AZTERLAN attended the International Foundry Exhibition in Bilbao (May 2014) as main exhibitor, spreading the project on behalf of the consortium. At METEF in Verona (June 2014), with more than 400 exhibitors and 10,000 international visitors, VDS and Chem-Trend showed a video or flyer of Soundcast.
GIFA, the international foundry trade fair in Düsseldorf (June 2015), had 2,214 exhibitors and 78,000 visitors from 120 countries. VDS, Chem-Trend, IK4-AZTERLAN and EURECAT all had a stand. At EUROGUSS in Nuremberg (January 2016), Soundcast results were promoted at the stands of Chem-Trend, VDS and Schmale & Schulte.
Further items: the release of the Soundcast project video, and the TU-BS paper on laser beam welding of high ductile secondary HPDC aluminium alloy at reduced ambient pressure. The leaflets and papers named above are listed under documents.