‹ Back to Columns

Breakthrough Insight for Buyers and Designers

Doug Kurkul

CastExpo 2019 will bring together more than 6,000 casting producers, parts buyers, casting designers, and industry suppliers. Held once every three years, the event will be held April 27-30 in Atlanta.

12 Sessions for Buyers and Designers.
This year, more than ever, CastExpo is a must-attend event for casting buyers, designers and specifiers. Your $100 floor pass will include access to 12 informative “Designers and Buyers Track” sessions. Imagine the insight to be gained from sessions:
•    “What to Do Now: Sourcing and Manufacturing in America” by noted author  Rosemary Coates, who leads the Reshoring Institute and teaches at U.C. Berkley.  
•    Appraising Your Casting Supplier” by Jim White, who draws on 20 years of experience with Caterpillar as a castings producer and buyer.
•    “Metalcasting Supply Chain and Design Roundtable” with several industry experts.
•    “Cost-Effective Casting Design” with Mike Gwyn of No Redesign LLC, who will discuss how designs that are easy to manufacture save money in the long run.
•    “Introduction to Ductile Iron” will be presented by AFS staff member Frank Headington, an industry veteran who will discuss converting fabrications into single cast components at lesser cost, inventory and lead time.
•    “Alloy Design Strategies in Aluminum” offered by Carl Soderhjelm, of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
•    “Casting Conversion and Additive Manufacturing” by Jiten Shah of Product Development & Analysis.
•    “Elements of Autonomous Engineering” with Vadim Pikhovich of Magma Foundry Technologies.
•    “Tips and Trends in Casting Sources” by casting sourcing professional Marshall Miller of FlowServe.
•    “Casting Case Studies in Iron and Aluminum” offered by Aaron Conner of Hitachi Metals and Greg Miskinis of Waupaca Foundry.
•    “Identifying Casting Sources,” led by Bob Mueller, who is a sourcing expert from the mining equipment company, P&H Mining Equipment.

Bring Your Own Blueprint.
Just down the exhibit hall from the Hub, where these lectures will occur, is the Cast in North America (CINA) show. There are 39 different foundries with a variety of capabilities exhibiting at CINA. Feel free to bring your blueprints on a flash drive or laptop, because there will be stations set up where you can discuss your blueprints with foundry experts!

You’ll also enjoy browsing the more than 400 industry suppliers who are exhibiting, many of whom will be providing the world’s first look at new manufacturing technology and equipment, right on the show floor. Your floor pass also includes access to all three CastExpo Keynote Speakers—Frank Abagnale (who inspired the movie, “Catch Me If You Can”), Dr. Doru Stefanescu of Ohio State University, and innovation expert Kaihan Krippendorff.  

As a buyer or designer, you might expect to pay many thousands of dollars in tuition and speaker fees over a period of many months for this expertise. At CastExpo, you’ll receive that insight for just the cost of a $100 floor pass. It adds up to a great experience that will make you even more effective in providing value to your company. We look forward to seeing you in Atlanta!

Click here to see this story as it appears in the March/April 2019 issue of MCDP.