On December 8th, 2017, over 250 people participated in the international conference “3D printing for casting engineering” organized by the Polish Foundrymens’ Association (STOP) as part of the annual Foundrymens’ Day, organized by this association. The initiator and patron of the conference was the Main Board of the World Foundry Organization, which also initiated the discussion on the significance and perspectives of these new techniques for manufacturing foundry molds and models.
The rapid development of 3D printing techniques in the last few years raises the question of whether they represent an opportunity for the foundry industry, enabling it to increase efficiency or whether they are a threat, gradually eliminating classic technologies. It is no wonder that the conference met with such great interest. It was organized in Krakow, in the congress and hotel complex, which also hosted the exhibition of companies participating in the conference, and afterwards a ceremonial meeting of Polish founders on the 80th anniversary of “Przegląd Odlewnictwa (Foundry Review)”, an industry magazine published by STOP. The Journal was also the conference’s most important press partner.
The conference and the discussion panel (Innovation In procedure of technology transfer: science – industry) were both held under the patronage of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education through the Dialog program coordinated by the AGH University of Science and Technology. Conference participants constituted mostly of engineers, owners and managers of foundries, employees of science and research facilities, Polish universities. In addition, foreign guests from Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Slovenia and Romania also participated in the conference.
The conference was opened by the president – elect of World Foundry Organization Mr. Mark Fenyes.
The conference was divided into two sessions during which 8 papers were presented:
The conference has been concluded with a very important third part in the form of a discussion panel. Both the authors of some of the scientific presentations took part in it, including: gentlemen Maximilian Fischer, Krzysztof Bonczar, Hubert Gleba, prof. Jerzy J. Sobczak, as well as a representative of the foundry industry Zbigniew Ronduda and the dean of the Faculty of Foundry AGH prof. Rafał Dańko. The panel moderator was Mr. Thomas Fritsch, the publisher of the Foundry Planet industry portal, very well known in the foundry environment.
