News

Applications are invited from engineers in the investment foundry and supply industries to submit a process improvement case study using six sigma or similar lean manufacturing techniques.

A prize of €1000 is offered by MetaCause to an engineer or engineering team who have successfully demonstrated an increase in productivity through the use of process improvement techniques.

The application form and tips on how to prepare the case study are available below as pdf documents or can be obtained from the EICF secretary: julieboyce@eicf.org

• Application Form


• Tips

The Federation is delighted to welcome the following companies into membership. Full contact details for these companies and web site links can be found on the members pages of this web site.

Fauchon-Baudot S.A.S.
Suppliers of refractory products
Contact: Geoffroy de Quatrebarbes
gdequatrebarbes@fauchon-baudot.com

Universal Alloys and Metals
Suppliers of primary and secondary speciality metals
Contact: Paul Bradwell
bernie@unititan.com

Potisje-Investment Casting
Investment foundry based in Serbia
Contact: Bojan Beslac
mikroliv@eunet.yu

The Federation is pleased to welcome the following companies into membership. Their contact details and web site links can be found in the members section of this web site

Foundries:
Deloro Stellite GmbHZur Bergpflege 51-53
D-56070
Koblenz
Germany

Magyarmet B.T.
H-2060 Bicske
Kanizsa UT 12
Hungary

Research Institute:
Giesserei Institut
Intzestr 5
52072 Aachen
Germany

Dovetail Polymers Ltd have taken over the Wex binder business and have joined the EICF as a supplier member.

Full details of their products and services can be obtained from Martin Hutchins (ex Wex)

Tel. +44 (0)870 710 8437

The Federation's 50 year anniversary conference was held in Bilbao May 21-24, 2006. The conference included 30 technical papers covering market surveys, business opportunities, management and process control. Specialist technical papers were given by international experts covering the critical aspects of the investment casting process. The conference was attended by 232 delegates from 18 countries and a further 98 personnel were in attendance at the 30 exhibition stands. Nearly 200 delegates also took the opportunity to visit PCB which is one of Europe’s modern Investment Foundries specialising gas turbine and high value components.

The conference invited young engineers from the Investment Casting Industry to enter a best paper competition and the review panel selected two winners, one from the difficult component category and one from the new working practice category. The winners were Dr Julia Cameron from Firth Rixson Superalloys and Mr Iñigo Menoyo from PCB.

The highlight of the social events was a banquet in the world famous Guggenheim Bilbao museum attended by 220 delegates. The banquet included private viewing of exhibits and a dancing display by Basque dancers. After the banquet, the formal transfer of the Presidency of the Federation was made from Mr Werner Blank to Mr Carlos Olabe.

The conference CD contains all the technical presentations except the following which can be downloaded from this site:

• US Market Survey


• Indian Market Survey (from Modtech Machines)


• Alstom: “Opportunities in the Power Generation Sector”

Additional copies of the conference CD can be obtained from the secretarial office, price 50 Euro.

Photographs taken by the official photographer during the conference are available on this site.