Sep 26 2006
The final meeting of the European Smart Foundry project took place on Friday 15 September at the premises of INASMET-Tecnalia.
The European Smart Foundry project, involving the participation of some ten pymes (small and medium-sized enterprises), four research centres and five industrial associations has lasted almost two and a half years.
During this time a series of measures have been developed aimed at increasing competition in the European foundry sector by means of knowledge management throughout the whole manufacturing cycle – from the conception of the component to its final product stage.
The programmes developed were:
- A “database on smelting/casting”, bringing together information on materials, processes and equipment at one data point.
- A “foundry knowledge management” programme enabling the identification of fields of knowledge and of those who possess this knowledge, both internally as well as with customers and contractors.
- A “help in designing foundry tools” programme, complementing CAD/CAM tools, and that aids the designer to make decisions on key aspects of a tool, based on the company’s own experience.
In all cases, the programmes allow the possibility of being completed and modified in such a way that they adapt to the particular needs of each one of the interested companies.
The final meeting of this project took place on Friday 15 September at INASMET-Tecnalia where all the project’s participants were present, as well as the European Commission person responsible in this field – in order to evaluate the results obtained and to outline dissemination activities so that industry might know of the developments undertaken.