Post-event and trend report on GIFA and NEWCAST 2023

The transformation of the metals industry towards climate neutrality was the central theme of the ‘Bright World of Metals’, which took place with great success in Düsseldorf from 12 to 16 June 2023, and was also the subject of much discussion at the GIFA and NEWCAST stands. The exhibiting companies and specialist conferences focused on technologies and solutions for decarbonisation, sustainability, and energy and resource efficiency in line with a circular economy across all stages of the value chains, based on the cradle-to-cradle approach. Messe Düsseldorf had already embraced this development years ago with its ecoMetals initiative. The range of products and services on offer by the exhibitors was correspondingly diverse. A total of 63,262 international visitors accepted the invitation to the Düsseldorf exhibition centre. Around two-thirds of all visitors came from abroad, with roughly one-third travelling from outside Europe.

Sustainability, energy and resource efficiency are the trends shaping the foundry industry

Just as the materials and casting processes used by individual foundries vary widely, so too do the decarbonisation strategies within this diverse sector. Other topics on the sustainability agenda for foundries and foundry technology suppliers include resource and energy efficiency. Green hydrogen plays a particular role as a climate-neutral substitute for natural gas in heating furnaces, albeit on a much smaller scale than, for example, in the steel industry. The number one source of energy for the transition in foundries is green electricity, as BDG Managing Director Max Schumacher made clear at GIFA. Take, for example, DiHAG: eight foundries specialising in iron and steel casting operate under the umbrella of the foundry group. The company operates five induction furnaces for the iron foundries and one electric arc furnace at the SHB steel foundry in Leipzig. CEO Viktor Babushchak is focusing on self-generation of electricity for the entire group. As early as 2016, the holding company established its own grid through Giga Energy GmbH. Around half of the electricity now comes from renewable sources. Babushchak’s goal is a green, self-generated electricity supply comprising 80 per cent wind energy and 20 per cent solar power. The main problem, Babushchak laments, is the bureaucracy involved in obtaining planning permission for wind turbines. As a result, the foundry group is currently making little progress towards the expansion targets it has set itself.

At Siempelkamp Giesserei, too, the path to decarbonisation involves green electricity. Digitalisation plays a crucial role in this. Last year, the Krefeld-based foundry, together with induction furnace manufacturer ABP Induction and digital start-up Zorc Technology, launched the first fully digitalised melting operation.

Induction melting systems are being promoted by major industrial furnace manufacturers such as ABP Induction and Otto Junker as a replacement for cupola furnaces and gas-fired furnaces. Dr Marco Rische from the induction furnace manufacturer ABP Induction explained how the conversion of a melting operation from fossil-fuelled cupola furnaces to virtually CO_₂-neutral medium-frequency induction furnaces, was outlined by Dr Marco Rische from induction furnace manufacturer ABP Induction Systems and Wolfgang Baumgart from Zorc Technology at the GIFA Forum.

ABP’s Rische sees no future for the cupola furnace. Nor does the furnace expert see hydrogen technology as a solution for foundries. “Hydrogen has no future in furnace technology,” said Rische. He argues that using hydrogen as a melting and heating technology makes no economic or ecological sense. Rische points out that it makes little sense to use renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen – incurring conversion losses in the process – only for it to be burnt subsequently, resulting in further losses. It is therefore far more efficient, he argues, to use green electricity directly for induction melting and heating.

From ABP’s perspective, the quartet of trade fairs – GIFA, METEC, THERMPROCESS and NEWCAST – was a resounding success. “The major themes of decarbonisation and digitalisation took centre stage at this year’s fair,” said Till Schreiter, Managing Director of ABP. “Embedded in our promise: ‘Your partner on the way to Zero emission’, these topics – alongside deglobalisation and demographic change – were precisely the key areas for which trade fair visitors were seeking solutions,” said Schreiter. Following years of the pandemic and the associated shift towards a digital working world, the desire for face-to-face meetings was clearly palpable. “The proportion of qualified visitors with decision-making authority was even higher than in previous years, so it is no surprise that this time round there were even some unexpected contracts signed at the trade fair,” Schreiter reported proudly. Schreiter: “After the trade fair is before the trade fair, and we are already looking forward to welcoming our friends and business partners back to Bright World of Metals 2027 in Düsseldorf.”

Sustainability and energy efficiency are particularly important issues for furnace manufacturers; environmentally friendly process control of industrial furnaces is state of the art. Like ABP, the furnace specialist Otto Junker also presented new solutions for induction melting systems and thermal processing systems. With digitalised plant technology and the correct operating procedures, the energy consumption of a melting furnace can be reduced. This also includes heat recovery and the use of electricity from additional photovoltaic systems. Otto Junker, for instance, presented new power-to-heat systems to visitors at the ecoMetals Trails, which store surplus electricity in the form of heat so that it can later be released as process heat. The heat is stored at temperatures of up to 1,100 °C.

Visitors to the Otto Junker stand were able to experience in a virtual reality (VR) environment how furnace operations can be controlled using modern plant technology. Using VR headsets, visitors could enter and operate a fully equipped foundry hall featuring an induction furnace. This development is not intended for entertainment, but has a serious purpose: to address the general shortage of skilled workers. Foundries are increasingly having to train unskilled staff to replace skilled workers, as Georg Born, Head of Sales Service at Otto Junker, reports. Before this takes place at a real furnace, the VR training allows the most important procedures to be practised safely.

Inductotherm is a global specialist in inductive melting and heating. With the Solar Unipac 5.0 system, the company presented a melting technology for foundries powered by green energy at this year’s quartet of trade fairs. The integration of solar energy, hydropower, wind energy and other renewable energy technologies is intended to secure the new green melting technology a leading position in the reduction of carbon emissions. The system combines solar panels, wind turbines, battery storage, an integrated induction power supply and a state-of-the-art induction melting furnace. Combined with renewable energy sources, this package – unveiled as part of the ecoMetals initiative – offers a complete, off-grid melting solution that enables companies to achieve sustainability without compromising on efficiency.

Is electrification the silver bullet?

Not all foundries see electrification as the silver bullet. In any case, gas continues to play a role in the industry, for example in heating furnaces. , for instance, presented Promeos – a specialist in flameless gas burner technology across the entire process chain and, according to the company, a technology leader in gas premix burner systems – showcased its range of custom-designed heating systems featuring flameless gas burner technology at GIFA. An energy-efficient and cost-effective contribution to environmentally friendly productivity gains, according to the supplier. Available as ‘hydrogen-ready’ on request, and optionally as an electrically powered solution.

The fact that, even in a foundry’s melting operations, electrification need not be the only solution for decarbonisation was demonstrated by the iron foundry Fritz Winter. A highlight at the GIFA stand was a new low-emission brake disc compliant with the Euro 7 standard, which was honoured with the NEWCAST Award in the lightweight construction category. Other innovations included lightweight automotive solutions made from thin-walled cast iron, which are weight-neutral compared to aluminium, including an electric motor housing newly developed in collaboration with an automotive manufacturer (OEM).

The iron foundry in Stadtallendorf, Hesse, remains committed to the coke-fired cupola furnace. “We must not under any circumstances give up the advantage of the cupola furnace,” said Markus Semmler, Head of Equipment Planning and Environmental Protection. Only with the coke-fired cupola furnace is it possible to produce 100 per cent high-quality pig iron from 100 per cent iron scrap. Semmler pointed out that, unlike the cupola furnace, the induction furnace cannot utilise 100 per cent scrap. The issue of decarbonisation is not just a question of economic viability, but above all a question of raw material availability. The expert feared that, as part of the decarbonisation of the steel industry via direct reduction with hydrogen and the electrification route, the raw materials market for iron foundries with electrified melting operations would cease to exist. Semmler: “Steelmakers rely on the very same raw materials that we would need for electrification. Even if we were willing to pay for them, we would then have to fear that we might not be able to obtain the feedstocks at all. We’re looking at the big picture. And there we see major problems with the supply of raw materials if we were to electrify 100 per cent.”

The smoking stack of the cupola furnace is no longer a necessary evil at Fritz Winter, but rather the gateway to a circular economy based on the CCU principle. The city of Stadtallendorf-based foundry intends for the CO_₂ to be captured from the flue gas stream, converted and used as a raw material without harming the environment. By 2030, Fritz Winter aims to implement air treatment and heat recovery at the flue, so that it can then begin the large-scale implementation of carbon dioxide capture. The captured CO₂ is to be channelled into CO₂ utilisation via local partnerships.

Foundry machinery – improving energy efficiency and productivity

As a leading supplier of die-casting technology, Oskar Frech has, amongst other things, new developments in energy saving, heat recovery and circular economy on its agenda. The hot-chamber and cold-chamber die-casting machines presented at GIFA have been further optimised. For example, the hydraulics have been further improved not only to deliver maximum dynamics and performance, but also to achieve further energy savings. A new recycling plant for aluminium wheels was unveiled; thanks to its heat recovery system, it operates with exceptional energy efficiency.

Oskar Frech holds a stake, amongst other things, in the Austrian industrial furnace manufacturer Meltec . The company is a leading supplier of innovative aluminium vacuum dosing units (AVD). The AVD can be fitted to any melting or ladle furnace and ensures the safe removal and precise dosing of the molten aluminium into the filling chamber of the cold-chamber die-casting machine. The system’s strengths include, amongst other things, the oxidation-free collection of melt below the bath surface, the transfer of the melt without air ingress in a sealed ceramic container with only a minimal drop in temperature, and high dosing accuracy thanks to the integrated, precise volume measurement of the degassed melt.  As a new development, Meltec unveiled a robot-controlled ACD for 150 kg of liquid aluminium to the public. Dr Thomas Franco, Managing Director and CTO at Oskar Frech, is convinced that this development can lead to a significant increase in productivity and quality, not only in Tesla’s Gigapress die-casting machines.

The international Norican Group was strongly represented at GIFA with its subsidiaries Italpresse Gauss, StrikoWestofen, Simpson, Wheelabrator and DISA. Energy and resource efficiency across all areas of foundry operations, as well as the cost-effective and environmentally friendly use of foundry raw materials, were key topics.

Italpresse Gauss, for example, focused, amongst other things, on the energy efficiency of die-casting machines. The Italian machine manufacturer presented the ‘ ’ Eco-Fit Mode – a system for controlling hydraulic pumps that reduces energy consumption by up to 50 per cent, and in the Eco-Fit Mode Plus variant by as much as 60 per cent.

The spotlight was on a successfully completed order from BMW. The Munich-based car manufacturer is using a large die-casting machine, the TF5700+ from Italpresse Gauss. This has enabled the car manufacturer to cast a newly designed, crash-relevant battery housing – originally comprising 16 parts – as a single, 6 kg aluminium component. BMW is thus the first European die-casting company to have produced large, single-piece structural components using a die-casting machine with a clamping force of more than 5,000 tonnes.