Click here to view an archive of past newsletters
In this October 2010 Newsletter #1:
Design Seminars on Magnesium & High
Integrity Die Castings
When Does the Industrial Recovery Stumble?
NADCA Awards iPad to Survey Participant
Discuss Die Casting Design
Design Seminars on Magnesium & High Integrity Die Castings
Do your current designs push the limits of conventional die
casting alloy properties? Does your product demand the lightest weight, but also needs the
properties only obtainable with metals? Then you may be interested in the High Integrity and
Magnesium Die Casting Design Seminars! The Magnesium Design Seminar will provide information
useful to a designer or purchaser interested in the option of die casting their next product
design in magnesium. All conventionally die cast products have the advantage of shape flexibility,
consolidation of multiple part assembles and reduced machining due to high as cast tolerances.
However using magnesium die casting can add additional benefits, such as extremely light weight,
damping, and other features to you product design. In addition High Integrity die casting processes
such a semi-solid metal, squeeze casting, and other newer die casting technologies can offer a
tighter range of material properties, low to zero porosity, weld-ability and heat treatability and
more. To learn more about designing for magnesium and high integrity die casting processes visit
the links below for a summary of topics and to register to attend.
Magnesium Die Casting Design Seminar:
http://www.diecasting.org/meetings/magnesium/
High Integrity Die Casting Design Seminar:
http://www.diecasting.org/meetings/ssm/
When Does the Industrial Recovery Stumble?
The industrial sector remains the star of the U.S. economy,
although it is obvious that it cannot pull the economy along on its own for much longer. It has
always been assumed that manufacturers were starting the process of exiting the recession, but at
some point the consumer was going to have to get engaged.
The fact that industrial growth continues at the pace it has for the last several months really
surprised many people as the period of inventory build was slated to be much shorter. It was
feared that at some point the build would be completed and, in the absence of renewed demand, the
industrial sector would slow again. There is evidence this is starting to take place as capacity
utilization has stopped growing at the pace previously set and industrial activity has ebbed.
To view the rest of this article,
click here.
NADCA Awards iPad to Survey Participant
In September, NADCA invited 500 individuals to participate
in its Die Casting Designer Value Survey. The goal of this survey was to assess what resources
were used to design die castings and identify the strengths and weaknesses of die castings in
various companies.
For their input, participants were entered in a drawing to win an iPad! The winner of the iPad is
Tom Montoya, a senior mechanical engineer for Intel Corporation in Portland, Oregon.
Montoya is a married, father of four and grandfather of five. He has been in electronic packaging
for over 34 years and has multi-technology sector experience. Montoya has been involved with top
secret military programs, commercial computer programs and health sector product development. He
has developed products for all sectors of the computer market, from home/office to commercial rack
mounted servers. Most recently, he assisted in the development of the Intel Health Guide, a
personal health guide monitoring system targeted to the elder care market. The touch screen rear
support panel for this product is die cast aluminum, chosen for its excellent stability and
rigidity during operation.
NADCA would like to thank Montoya and the other individuals who took the time to participate in
this important survey. Participants will receive a report of the findings and results will also
be published in NADCA’s LINKS magazine
Discuss Die Casting Design
Do you have a question related to die casting, would you
like to discuss the topics in this newsletter further? Feel free to visit the NADCA
Die Casting Message Board at:
www.diecasting.org/forum/ and register to start discussing
your die casting design topic!
