Press Releases and News

What Makes MAGMA Different

At MAGMA we strive to be different. We focus not only on meeting the needs of our customers, but to exceed them and become an active participant in their success. Our customers don’t just buy our software, we become their partner in ensuring their customer’s needs are met. When you buy a MAGMASOFT® license, you buy an entire MAGMA team of engineers to go with it. One of the many qualities that makes MAGMA different than the rest is our commitment to working together with you to solve any casting issue you might have. We are not only engineers who know our software, we are engineers who know the foundry and die casting industries inside and out. Most of our engineers have worked in a foundry or die casting facility. Our knowledge base goes beyond applying our software to your casting issues, it encompasses applying our software to the real life situations you are seeing in production. Even before production, we can help you with issues in the design stage. MAGMASOFT®’s job is to predict what will happen. Our engineers’ job is to use the tool to prevent the defects before they happen. We take the time to listen to what you are struggling with, apply our knowledge of the foundry and die casting world, and then apply our knowledge of MAGMASOFT® to solve the casting issue. From the MAGMAacademy, to MAGMAsupport, to your process group team and Account Manager, you will always have someone to discuss issues and challenges with. 

Annual User Group Meeting

This concept of partnership, community and family is never more apparent than at our annual User Group Meeting. Once a year, every September, we gather together with our users for a two-day event focused on learning from each other, sharing ideas and growing together. In addition to visiting our customers at their location throughout the year, all the training classes, workshops and seminars we put on, we feel getting everyone together in one place annually provides a whole new dimension to the learning process. In this environment, peers gather together and hear stories of how other engineers use the software. Users have the opportunity to brainstorm and problem solve. In addition, they are exposed to techniques they might not have considered. The reverse is true as well. A user might have an issue they are struggling with. Once presented to the group, their peers come together to suggest options that could potentially solve their defect. At any given moment they could be sitting right next to someone who dealt with the same issues and can provide a known working solution, or at the very least, a valid option to try. Revelations and discoveries like this happen over and over when users get together and share their experiences.

This Year’s User Group Meeting

At this year’s user group meeting we increased our attendance from last year by 10%. After our Wednesday evening welcome reception, the users were ready to get to work Thursday morning. Our user meeting started by gathering together as a large group in the main meeting room and setting the stage for the events to come over the next day and a half. After being welcomed by our president, the users were promptly introduced to our first presentation: “New Wheel Design Principals” given by a representative from MAGMA customer, Superior Industries International, Inc. After this, the group took a morning break and proceeded right into Process Breakout Sessions. Here, individuals gather together with those who work in the same process they do. We have found that in the smaller, more specific groups there tends to be intimate conversation and interactions revolving around the specific process this group works with every day. After lunch the small breakout sessions continued for another hour before bringing the large group back together in the main room for an activity that was newly implemented this year: the Large Group Kiosks. Here we had nine (9) kiosk stations set up and attendees would rotate every 10 minutes to a different station to learn something new. This new program was well received and the variety of topics was relevant no matter what process you use.

The second day started with another large group gathering. Here, MAGMA staff shared presentations regarding how to use MAGMASOFT® for Cost analysis. The session was titled “Cost Related Process Group Panel” with representatives from each focus group: steel, high pressure die casting, iron, non-ferrous, and core & mold giving an example. Each presented a 10 minute look into how you can use MAGMASOFT® to analyze and reduce production costs. This large group session was followed by one last set of small process breakout sessions before we concluded this year’s meeting after lunch.

We are fortunate to have many esteemed organizations as our customers, many of who stepped up and presented to their peers in their Process Breakout Sessions. Users from Strattec Security Corporation, Le Sueur Incorporated and Mercury Castings were happy to present to their peers in the High Pressure Die Casting breakout session. American Axel Manufacturing, Waupaca and FOSECO had representatives present in the Iron breakout sessions. Representing their peers in the non-ferrous breakouts were representatives from Le Sueur Incorporated and Eck Industries. Our steel group heard from Sloan Valve Co, ME Elecmetal and had two presentations from Wirco, Inc. This year at our meeting we were pleased to present the MAGMA Certified User award to three recipients.   These users have completed the highest level of training and have showed their ability to clearly and concisely communicate software outputs.   Please join us in congratulating Dan Hoefert, Eck Industries, Inc., Dan Ramlow, Strattec Security Corporation, and John Bryniarski, Wirco, Inc. for their hard work and dedication.