Domestic die casting shipments will increase next year after two years of declines, forecasts the new State of the Industry report from the North American Die Casting Association (NADCA). An uptick in automotive use has triggered a rise in magnesium die casting shipments. Another 3% improvement is expected this year with a 4% gain in 2008. Aluminum and zinc are not faring as well. A 1.2% drop in aluminum shipments is forecast for 2007 before a 1.5% increase will be seen in 2008, with similar results for zinc. New technical developments are on the horizon. Keep an eye on the print pages of Design News.
A new process for laser-welding large-scale, steel-aluminum foam sandwich structures for lightweighting ships, which eliminates intermetallic phase, has been demonstrated.
A major advance in repairing composite structures combining robots and lasers bodes well for commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350XWB, which contain composites in large proportions of their structures.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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