Straight from the start - Monterrey, Mexico is a great place.
Pleasant climate, great convention center was selected, friendly people - it's was absolute place to be for delegates, participants, exhibitors and visitors.
A proud and dedicated organization team was prepared to take on any challenge, readily available to help in any situation and presented the celebrated Mexican hospitality. This was the perfect set up for a great World Foundry Congress.
Despite all of this, we have experienced more participants in similar previous exhibitions than the nearly 400 official delegates and in 3,500 visitors who attended the WFO in 3 days.
We also had the opportunity to meet important representatives at the WFO: Xabier Gonzalez Azpiri (WFO President), Andrew Turner (UK) Vinod Kapur (IN), Don Huizenga (USA), Juan J Leceta (ESP), Hiroyoshi Kimura (JAP), Mark Fenyes (UK), Max Schumacher (CAEF), Per Rolf Roland (NOR), Mats Holmgren (SWE), Dr. Murthy, Pierre-Marie Cabanne, Lucky Juganan, Dr. Ing. Franco Zanardi, Mr. Jan Tolar and many others. The delegations from Germany, Italy, China, Brazil and the USA was of a lesser presence, or just not there.
Polish Experts were also invited to speak at the event, but due to their unexpected no-show, their lecture which was 25% of the program wasn't substituted.
An excellent program was held in the Parque Fundidora, which reflected the successful industrial heritage and took place in a beautifully scaled field where the buildings and furnaces of the first foundry were located, creating an ideal backdrop for the festive gatherings.
 Monterrey / Mexico |  |  Parque Fundidora |  Opening WFC 2012 |
 Andrew Turner(r.) and Jose Antonio Lazcano |  |  Work Visit |  Furnace 3 Parque Fundidora |
 |  |  |  Closing WFC 2012 - See you in Bilbao 2014 |
 G. Meneghetti, University Padova (m.) with Andrew Turner and Vinov Kapur |
Paper Awards:
- Paper from Spain, Julián Izaga Maguregi, AZTERLAN Metallurgical Technical Center:
Optimization of chemical bonded sand moulds for big size cast components. Reduction of manufaturing costs. - Paper from Italy, Giovanni Meneghetti, University of Padova, Department of Mechanical Engineering (click here)
- Paper from South Africa, Lucky Juganan, University of Johannesburg, National Foundry Technology Network: The Career Path Framework for the Foundry Industry in South Africa- an innovative skills development initiative for training of the foundryman.
Work Visits:
The foundry (Work visits) in Monterrey and Saltillo were well received and showed impressive strength of the Mexican foundry industry.
Monterrey : Blackhawk, Nemak, NovoCast
Saltillo: Cifunsa, Deacero, Nemak, Techno Cast
The exhibition XVIII. Fundiexpo took place as well with approximately 400 supplier companies. With the attendance of around 3,500 visitors, exhibitors were overwhelmingly satisfied.
Mexico will be investing lot of money in the next few years into the renovation of foundry equipment in order to build upon their leading position in Latin and Central America. This allows for promising opportunities for all market participants and pity for those who were not able to come to Monterrey- for whatever reason.
The next WFO Technical Forum will be in April 2013 in St. Louis, Missouri (USA) followed by the next World Foundry Congress 19th - 21 May 2014 in Bilbao, Basque (ESP). You can view to the presentation of Bilbao today.
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