17 Mar 45. Aachen Foundry Colloquium “Cast Iron – A New Way of High Performance Materials”

Cast iron and lightweight construction – a contradiction

In the opening address, Prof Dr. Bührig Polaczek, head of the Foundry Institute in Aachen, that cast iron is a practical and diverse representative of ferrous materials, which has been used successfully in many industrial applications since the century before last. The title of the event and the participation of over 100 experts also make it clear that cast iron, with its wide range of properties, is still very current. Particularly in the field of renewable energies, the robust behavior and the wide range of possible uses contribute to future-oriented and sustainable development. In exciting lectures, selected speakers provided information about the latest findings on influencing material properties and the current requirement profiles of designers.

IWT-Solutions AG was invited to speak about a joint project with Magma (iron casting simulation). Our result: to determine the toughness properties over the cross-section of geometrically complex cast bodies directly from the casting simulation (Fig. 1), convinced the expert audience, especially the participants in the field of wind energy (machine). The market leader Vestas reported on similar optimization strategies in the drive train of offshore wind energy plants. The subsequent discussions finally showed that new design ideas, especially for the latest generation of high-silicon cast iron, are urgently needed.

IWT-Solutions was involved in further research projects at RWTH Aachen University on the subject of lightweight construction in cast using modern methods of material mechanics. If you are interested in the complete presentation or other information, please send us an e-mail with the subject-related request.