The outbreak of the worst pandemic of the first half of the century viz., the Novel Coronavirus or the COVID-19, turned the world upside down with almost all businesses coming to a halt. The foundry business is no exception and suffered the dire consequences of not innovating much in the wake of the pandemic. So what are the changes that are going to shape the future of castings?

Is aluminum replacing steel in future?
Aluminum is more likely to replace steel in different applications in the future, though cast iron and ductile iron may continue to rule the roost. Aluminum can change the face of the avionics sector as it is the most preferred material for making lighter components. Another important factor is the stability of aluminum. In mechanical engineering, aluminum is applicable only for mechanically demanding tasks. The production of aluminum is increasing year after year. The price of the finished product is reduced due to cutting-edge manufacturing methods and state-of-the-art machines. The price of raw materials has been quite high in the recent times, but they remain unaffected by as many fluctuations as metal.

Automation due to lack of skilled workers
The foundry industry is also witnessing a steady decline in its workforce. Though the reason, many points, is rigorous working conditions—falling training figures put the numbers still lower. There is a need for foundries to stay competitive and therefore, companies depend on fully autonomous or semi-automated system to maintain or even enhance their production levels. Though it is popularly believed that automation will lead to job cuts and eliminating manual labour. It is actually the opposite. You can expect your employees to invest more time in designing or testing things rather than operating machines, transporting the required raw materials or filling molten metal at extremely risk conditions. However, the best part of automation is that it can attract a lot of youngsters looking to work in the design or development part of the foundry industry. Let’s see more of it in the Next Part of the blog.