1 Our profession revives and improves! Another great success and promising future Summary of the 22nd Hungarian FOUNDRY DAYS, International Exhibit and Conference 18-20. October, 2013. Herceghalom, Hotel Abacus The 22nd Hungarian Foundry Days this year was officially held in English and Hungarian languages, with the support and organization by the Foundry section of the Hungarian Mining and Metallurgical Society and the Association of Hungarian Foundries. It is a fact, and serves as the basis for success in general that following the crisis of the years 2007-2009, the national foundries are in a better situation both financially and in terms of general conditions and circumstances. Some facts from the conference: No. of registered attendants 205 No. of presentations: 35 Student presentations: 9 Company introductions: 7 No. of exhibitors: 7 No. of supporters: 15 The key event sponsor of the event was the MAGYARMET group. The main sponsors were ECSERI Kft., FÉMALK Zrt. INDUCTOTHERM EUROPE LTD (England) Nemak Győr Kft., while further support was received from Antamik Kft., Csepel Metall Kft., ESI Group TEN Slovakia s. r. o., HÜTTENES-ALBERTUS CHEMISCHE WERKE GMBH (Germany), K+K VAS Kft., L-DUPLEX PIVO ÖNTÖDE Kft., UNIVERSITY OF MISOLC, FACULTY OF MATERIAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, FOUNDRY DEPARTMENT and SZEGEDI ÖNTÖDE Kft. The conference was opened by Dr Sohajda, József, president of the Association of Hungarian Foundries. Further speeches were held by (in order) Dr Nagy, Lajos, president of Hungarian Mining and Metallurgical Societies, László Erdősi, major of city Herceghalom, and Jenő Radetzky, president of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Fejér County. The plenary sessions chairman was Dr Hatala, Pál, secretary general of the Association of Hungarian Foundries.
2 Presentations at the 22nd foundry days (in the order appearance): - Braun, Zsolt, NEMAK Győr Ltd: Trends and challenges in aluminium cylinder head production - Barnett, Stephen, Magyarmet Group: Does technology shape the market or does the market shape the technology - Toth, Stefan, SUCABA Ltd: The streamline of the fast and simply decision making for CEOs with PC - Dr Gácsi, Zoltán, Miskolc University: Short and long term actions of continuance the foundry education at the University of Miskolc Following the initiative by Nemak Győr Kft. two years ago, the key event sponsor, MAGYARMET Group offered to organize a professional morning session to support the future of the professional training in the field of metallurgy, and to enhance the public acceptance of the profession. About 70 secondary school students (about 35 of them from Lukács Vocational School in Győr) and about 35 students from the Bánki Donát Szakközép Iskola (Tatabánya), attended the 3 presentations: - Rákóczi, T Sován, K, Lukács Polytechnok School: Overview of the Hungarian secondary foundry education - Pintér, J R, Nemak Győr Ltd: using 4D simulation to improve casting production for the automotive industry - Győri, I, Magyarmet Group: There is no future without casting Following the presentations, aluminium casting and moulding live demonstration was held by the teachers and students of the Miskolc University Foundry Department and the participation of the students in front of the entrance of HOTEL ABACUS. Following the successful a.m. student sessions an announcement was made about the recently launched casting vocational courses offered since the 2012 fall semester, in the Lukács Sándor Vocational School, within the frame of the Automotive part manufacturing skilled worker program. As the program is being offer for the second time this year for the second time, 20 students have begun studies in this field. Another course will be offered in the Weiss Manfred Vocational school in Csepel starting in 2014, in the form of a dual-system secondary educational course, primarily based on casting studies. Parallel to the professional student sessions, the participants of the conference attended a plant tour at the site of Vasöntöde Kft., the new plant of Ecseri Kft. in Szolnok and the site of MAGYARMET BT in Bicske. More than 70 people took advantage of the open gates. Similarly to the previous year s tradition, a special session was held for the doctoral candidates and students. At the 22nd Foundry Days the organizers offered programs to the small group of doctoral candidates within the frame of the student sessions, where the BSc and MSc students had a chance to give presentations about their current research studies. There were 9 presentations and approximately 40 people in the audience (it is a pleasure that there is still a need for young professionals in this field!). The name of the authors and the titles of the presentations could be caught on the main page by clicking on the 22 nd Foundry Days banner ( www.foundry.matav.hu/program_english.pdf ). 205 attendants have registered this year for the events of the Foundry days (17 of them from arriving from other countries); 93 companies were represented and the participants have arrived from 5 different countries.
3 On the first night of the events the famous Majsai Gábor and the Fortissimo Band ensured excellent atmosphere and entertainment to the attendants, while the second night a traditional Foundry Man's Event was held with excellent organizational support. All the events took place in Hotel Abacus offering excellent conditions for a successful conference, supported by a kind and courteous staff and the upmost professionalism. Dr Sohajda, József, president of the Association of Hungarian Foundries has highlighted during the closing ceremony of the conference that the 22 nd Foundry Days were successful, exceeding the expectations, the level of professionalism and the topics of the presentations were excellent, and the active contributions of the professionals and attendants were extraordinary. He put special emphasis on the fact that more than half of the presentations were presented by professionals, with lots of professionalism, professional stability, who are younger than 40 years and work for the companies represented at the conference. The presentations were much welcomed by the audience. It has been a tradition that the best presentations of the conference receive the "Excellent Presentation of the Foundry Days" award, awarded by the section chairmen of the conference. The key sponsor, MAGYARMET Group offered a price for each of the "EXCELLENT PRESENTATION OF THE FOUNDRY DAYS" in the professional and "EXCELLENT PRESENTATION OF THE FOUNDRY DAYS" in the student sessions. The awards were presented during the closing ceremony, and the recipients were awarded a spontoon decorated with a plaque, engraved with the words above. These were presented by the owner of the sponsor company, Győri Imre. The "senior award was presented to Dr. Dúl Róbert (CFD Engineering Hungary Kft., presenter) - Török Róbert Dr. Fegyverneki György and Braun, Zsolt, NEMAK Győr for the presentation of Development of Cooling Technology of Cylinder Head Castings with Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations ; while the junior award was presented to Molnár, Zs, Miskolc University, MSc, 1st semester: for the presentation on The effect of vacuum treatment on the properties of HPD castings Molnár Zsolt ME MAK, I. semester MSc student Dr. Dúl Róbert CFD Engineering Hungary Kft. As part of the closing speech by the chairman, the recommendations of the section chairmen were also summarized: 1) Initiated by the Association of Hungarian Foundries, the Round Table for the Future of post secondary casting education ascertained that the conditions of professional postsecondary education have significantly changed, the material conditions improved and while the number of students in this field remained constant the number of professors have substantially decreased. While the University of Miskolc remains the centre of
university education and research, several other technical universities conduct encyclopaedic type, additional casting programs. Suggestions: marketing activities and the use of media by companies and professional organizations must be increased in the satellite regions to promote the casting education among students. The Association of Hungarian Foundries must arrange a meeting ASAP with the attendance of expert professionals and PhD's from the professional field (12-15 professionals nationwide) to record a statement of their opinions on the future of professional post-secondary education, to assert their willingness to participate in the educational field, and assess the possible commercial resources supporting the education. The leaders of Miskolc University MAK shall define the conditions of involving the above mentioned professionals. The leaders of the faculty shall present the criteria to support the dual educational system and develop the basis for the structural divisibility (geographical and professional distribution according to the company sizes and other criteria). Substantial role must be assigned to the ME-MÖSZ joint venture company, and the utilization of the personnel and asset base of the FOUNDRY-SOLID Kft in the course of implementation of the principles. The directional role of the Casting Faculty of the ME MAK shall be maintained and further improved, and remain the basis for casting research, developments and overall innovation activities as the traditional base of the Nador School. 2) The student session was held for the first time this year and fully met the expectations of the organizers. The slides were all complimented by English subtitles. Further suggestions for the future student sessions: a preliminary presentation of the slides during the in house conferences or within the frame of the Scientific Student Club to further improve and pre-screen the presentations. 3) The rate of presentations subtitled both in Hungarian and English further improved this year. However, not all the presenters met this principle. In the future, it must be set out as base criteria for all presentations in the conference. 4) The Lukács Sándor Vocational School in Győr has been offering degrees for the second time this year, and from 2014 the Weiss Manfred Vocational School in Csepel will also offer secondary education programs primarily based on casting studies, in form of a dual-system educational training. The organizational bodies shall treat these initiatives as core importance, thus support the institutions according to their individual resources, and promote the programs with a wide range of marketing activities. At the end of the closing ceremony by the Chairman thanked for the support and hard work of all of our colleges assisting during several weeks serving as the pillars for the successful organization of the 22 nd Foundry Days. Special thanks were given to Dr. Hatala Pál and Katkó Károly main organizers, Dr. Dúl Jenő (for the program structure and live casting presentation) to Fifek Gabriella and all of the university students assisting the programs, who participated in the organization of the conference; to Újszászi Nórának and the team of ABACUS Hotel and all the people who have participated in the works to arrange a successful conference. At the end, the Chairman informed the attendants that the next, 23 rd Foundry Days will be organized in October 2015 by the two peer organizations 4
5 The banner welcoming the attendants - with the logos of the sponsors HP