In a interview with the Foundry-Planet, Jan Wuethrich, Technical Director of M5 Engineering reveals the company’s function as a “foundry education mediator” as well some information of the local foundry market potential.
M5 Engineering (Thailand) Ltd. is representing Fondarex Swiss Vacuum Solutions, Wollin Systematic Spraying Technology for light alloys (Non-Ferrous) and pourTECH™ Automatic Pouring Solutions for ferrous (Iron &Steel) foundries.
Since its start in 2013, M5 Engineering Thailand Co. Ltd. established the M5 Academy in cooperation with King Mongkut University of Technology (Thonburi). The objective of the “Academy” is combining fundamental basics of casting technology with the latest “state-of-the-art” machinery to make the future foundryman and women understand the importance of continuous developments that are ongoing to achieve a more efficient casting production and better casting parts.
“In nowadays demanding foundry industries a good technical education is not optional… it is a must!
We want to contribute our part and are glad to share our knowledge and experience with the young foundry professionals” - Jan Wuethrich, Technical Director of M5 Engineering
“We have a lot of educational activities here in Thailand together with King Mongkut University of Technology (Thonburi)”, Wuethrich states.
With workshops, tutorials, and presentations, young professionals improve their skills, widen their foundry knowledge, and get familiar with new technologies.
“In the beginning we started with 8 students on Saturday classes… today we have sessions with up to 80 students! Not only students are joining our activities… also active senior foundry personnel are coming to our seminars to get a deeper insight into product specific topics where our partners are supporting us with their expertise’s!
“Make it simple” … If You can’t explain it simple, then You do not understand it good enough!
The prime mission of M5 Academy is to transfer foundry knowledge… our presentations and workshops must attract and entertain people. The learning materials need to be interesting and only with quality content! it is a challenging task to make complicated subjects easy to understand… for example how to present a “vacuum” … or any foundry topics that are not straight forward visible! Therefore, we set priority on digital visualization and real showcases. We must consider the different culture and language barriers!? This can only be done with a deep “Passion” for the foundry profession, smart leadership, and intercultural competences!
Apropos students: young professionals from Asia are very ambitious. Our academy sessions are always a lot of fun and very interactive. This results in very positive feedback from the local foundry industries. -so Wuethrich.
The Thai Foundry Market:
At the end of the discussion, the question arose if it’s easy to enter in Thailand’s foundry Industry? Wuethrich states:
The industries consist mainly of Japanese companies (Automotive, Electronics, Mining) which are main investor in Thailand. There we talk about 200 Ferrous & Non-Ferrous manufacturers of different sizes and different foundry applications/processes. Thailand is also the hub for “jewelry” casters which results in additional countless small investment casting foundries. “Thailand’s foundry market offers a lot of opportunities but “on the other hand” also offers a lot of “obstacles on the way”. There is no recipe or advice on how to succeed except that without foundry specific know-how, passion, and pioneer spirit the realization of a project like M5 and its Academy is not possible!
