MAGMA Attends AFS Young Professionals Program

The 2019 AFS Young Professionals Program kicked off with 50 attendees from the United States, Germany, and Japan. The group explored manufacturing facilities in Illinois and Wisconsin, including Neenah Foundry, the Kohler foundry, a Briggs & Stratton assembly plant, and the MxD manufacturing design lab. Attendees networked and shared these experiences with one another, exposing each other  to new ideas and ways of thinking.

Attendees ranged from foundry technicians to sales representatives and company presidents, who all gathered to share common concerns and solutions. Participants at every level discussed the future of metal casting in the context of Industry 4.0: focusing on how to improve efficiency by gathering and responding to new process data. Some attendees are users of MAGMASOFT® while other have never used any type of simulation. Considering the topic of 4.0, the conversation would gravitate to the capabilities of how MAGMASOFT® can improve their processes.

Determining how to respond to additional process data is one of the challenges the group kept returning to. With MAGMASOFT®, process variations can be accounted for by understanding how a casting will respond to deviations. A numerical understanding of a foundry’s variability can provide them with the tools they need to design castings that are less susceptible to the fluctuations in their process. As data collection in the industry improves, MAGMASOFT® can be used not only to make casting designs that work, but that work every time.