Located on the outskirts of Taranto, Casto is a divi sign of Face Technologies, a multinational group of Exco 15 companies ane move that 2000 emypl Technologies is a major technology provid the die cast, extrusion and automotive industries in the ‘alobal marker According 1 Castool General Manager Paul Roby bins, “Our role is wo design, buik! and support tasting and process related equipment used primarily by light metal die casters and extruder, “OF course we benefit by bein part of a parent com pany chat inchides such leading die east mold builders as Exco Engineering, Beco ancl Extec, but Casto is very definitely a stand-alo © operation, We have grown ulily in the past 1 years and now provide the most ‘comprehensive line of world-class products and equip. ment currently available to the two indlustries we serve, Recently LINKS talked with Robbins about his ound, his management philosophy and the success al Casto TLIONTESS) ow is it that became invalved with ROBBINS: Thave a postgrad ce im busi- ness aciministeation and while L was still at university, I worked part time for Exco Tech rralogies, [o¥.X=} [alo] a cAM programs for their extrusion die division. Ali griclua tion, F joined Esco Tech in 1983 t0 fun Canalley, their steel division, 1 moved to Castool in 1987, ETON spc nen, gather she ther ROBBINS: [ily the has een in the attitude of ses change over that tine ‘employees. The pervep) tion that a customer has of any company depends to 3 large extent on the attitade of its employees at all levels At Castoo! we adopted the motto, “Our suecess depends fom the success of our customers.” This may seem & pretty obvious statement and one that shoiild he taken anted, but industrial companies that ate seriously lv 9 all that common, “Anything that can be measured cat be nce evervone accepted that concer atid became comfortable with it, we mite a sincere gom mitiment « ongoing improvement throughout the ‘company. This had some surprising and postive rests commer oriented ane ae Second imprened For example, rhe mere fact of measuring, and record: ing many things that hadn't been measured reg larly before, seemed «0 almost yuarantee immediate J: | jrtagine that this woidhd certaitily have an impact on bath your prraductivity and the qual ty of your proxluets, ROBBINS: Well, Caso as the first tooling sup plier in its field te have LSQ9002 certification. Then, since some oF our customers ate second tier suppliers 10, the automotive industry, although we were not requieed to, Casto! became the firs rouling supplier to the to inlustries we are in, to achieve the considerably more stringent QS9000 certification, wowiccastingorg linksPlunger red with proprictary rina plunger We have tion room where all measuring instruments are regu special remperarure-contealled ealila leaned ana calibrated. I guarantwed accuracy of one hundeed thuusandrh of an inch, We alse regularly test our inspectors, ta be sure hat their measuring techniques are consistent (Quality isan itmeresting topic, because the marker is salty is aetually no longer a selling feature. Quality is not negotiable, 1thas ww be jven. 1d fact, it promoting industvial products, the word features” i increas how so competitive that iy being replaced by “ben: What the customer today eeally wants to kni is hhow your product will increase his profit. He wants the ssurance of a Hieasurable nancial benefit ROBBIN' implg one that recognizes and profits from the fact A knowledge based company is moving fron an inforiation economny into a kiowl edge based economy. Let me explain’ Changing techinology is driving the next wave aif'eco Ph, will have te apply nor oni the new technology, but also sew thinki But first, we should clearly understand the shifts in the economy from data to inforination to knowledge Dara isthe basie building block of both the infra tiun economy and the knowledge-based business. We collece dara primarily in the farm of numbers, words, sas asi iil patterns, it becomes infomation. The importance ‘of data as an economic factor frst became apparent in the 1950s and 60s, when room-sized computers made it , When data is arranged into mean: posible tu caller, srt and store vast amokints of data This then had wo he programmed by users w produce information, With the advent of increasingly power Til, smaller and cheaper computers, a8 an economy’ we are How begin Tomllige Vests Acne bnoetlec oe penta For a die caster, effective use of knowledge will have a positive impact on costs, eve time, proxluctiviey and profit. Learning and edacation are obviously veal for point of knowledge-hased strategy is to make more money. any company, burt te be perfectly frank, the re www diccasting.orp/tiths ROBBINS: As well as heing of considerable value tu the user, typically, a knowledge-based proce will be “smart”, By smart, I mean that it will be electron cally connected, not freestanding, so that its operation aunomatically changes with a changing ced. Ako, it Will likely be customized tor each particular installa tion, Finally, it will likely be easily upgradable ROBBINS: The Casioo temperature connvolled short sleeve is a good example ofa smart proxluc Together with the Aliper plunges tip, it illustrates Cas tool's approach to a major problem in the eald chamber dle casting of light metals. For acceptable productivity, the plung through the shot sleeve quickly and smoothly mst pass his can conily happen ithe shor sleeve is rear! and straight sid gap between the pling abways remains at about fou tho at any time during the shor thi the alloy is likely to penetrate the space and flash or algo ifthe tip and the sleeve andths of an inch, If April 2004 © LINKS/25‘Shot sleeve with thermal control jackes Dlowhy can occur. This will inevitably cause excessive ‘sear Ifthe ap becomes les than fur tho, there is a danger ofimerfence and inconsistent show velocity. Scrap wil esl. ‘The problem is ghat when heated, metal expands. Anda copper plunger tip expands st 2 much greater rate thar the see shor sleeve Casto’ selatinn to this problem is wo automatically control the temperate of the shot aleve, thu making, its TD more consistent daring the shot The effiient hear tranaer af the patented water: cooled plunger tip ellectvely restricts its thermal fexpansinn, It also cools the biseuit much more quickly ‘haa conventional plunger tp. This redces the lengel of vime thatthe mould remains closed and als allows a thicker bist. Feit afew seconde rection ina short cyee time will have an appreiable ae o 26/LINKS © April 2004 prostuctivity ani pea In researching the flow of temperature theegh the sleeve during the shot, when upgrading aur tempers ture comroller, we used the finite element method This nequined a computer to resclve more than two rion mathematical equations; turning data ine information. ‘The computer moxlling then eorverted information into know ledge be ‘company in the coming years? ROBBINS: the fitw:e for Casto} looks good, Completing its line of pruslucts for di casters evinces with a growing market. The automotive industry waits to increase ts use of light metals 10 reduce vehicle ‘weight and fue] consumption... andl most of the light metal now used by auto makers is dic cast. There has likely heen more improvement i the weeh- nology of ight metal die casting in the ast 10 years, than in the previous 20, This is good forthe inlastry aiid iis good for Caso GEES ce wont yu give te ‘caster who wants to profit from the cufrent movement | tomar a knowledge based! esonomy. ROBBINS: | wold suggest that he be constantly aware of the fact that providing the cheapest product that will do the job is atten ne longer enough, Taday's buyer wants more value for iis dullar. The die easter who can add the most value to the product he makes will net the business ‘Many engineers who design parts 1 be die cast have sno faa how large, how thin, how precise anal hirw somes Hight metal castings eam now be made with the ail of vacunm. Hor example, some components ‘hat have previously been made from two casings ea stow be redesigned into one. Parts that were machined ater casting, can now be cast with the required elise tolerarces, Making walls hiner ean reduce weight. Siructural integrity can be improved and scrap reduced by eliminating porosiey ‘The mumber of ways to ada value to his pronluct is limited only by the imagination of the die caster, his Knowledge of what now ean be axcomplished ant his dlotwemination ta succeed. © ww maiccasting.org/links