Various topics that are also repeatedly discussed in Europe were:
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Increasingly, independent foundries are setting up their production in halls adjoining to the OEMs' production lines (even in China, transport costs are not negligible in times of high price pressure)
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Increasingly, die casting cells are huge and complex units, starting with melting/dosing furnaces and over half a dozen robots
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there is extreme time pressure when setting up production lines and within new projects, which makes process optimization difficult
The visit to a well-known Chinese car manufacturer was an impressive experience.
The process begins with a melting furnace at each cell and ends a few halls further on at the end of the production line with a finished car. In the meantime, there is little to no staff to be found. The processes are completely automated. No component is touched by hand. Transport is carried out exclusively by autonomous industrial trucks and various robots.
The increasing pressure on foundries is also noticeable in China. Due to the large number of players and the quantity of large machines, there was an extreme fall in prices for large structural castings during the last year. At the same time, good labor is also scarce and expensive in China. It is indispensable that this will lead to pressure on suppliers to optimize processes and to decrease costs.
Furthermore, the assumption is confirmed that an increase in components made from non-heat-treated alloys with a parallel reduction in downstream processes leads to new problems.
As already explained in several presentations, one of the major challenges that we as a release agent manufacturer can influence is the quality of the surface of the casting. For subsequent processes, for example in bonding processes, the absence of residues is an essential attribute.
This is where our development work pays off. Depending on the processes, we choose different raw material components and/or spraying technologies (e.g. Microspray) in order to fulfil the various and diverse customer requirements. We also help our customers with technical support during implementation and process optimization and develop new products to meet the new requirements of a rapidly growing and developing market.
As a European supplier, the Chinese market remains challenging.
We at Geiger + Co. Schmierstoff-Chemie GmbH are optimistic that we will be able to cope with the size and speed of varying processes and technology standards with our customer-centered and innovative way of working.
We are proud to be represented locally by our experienced, reliable and well-established team and look forward to the challenges ahead.
