ALUCAST 2007

ALUCAST 2007 (the 13th ALUCAST) was held successfully from 10 to 12 December, 2007 in the pink city of Jaipur. The event which had as its theme "Technology Trends in Aluminium Cast Components & Processes was held at the Birla Auditorium of the Birla institute of Scientific Research, Jaipur. The event was held in association with The Department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur. The conference and exhibition was organized by Aluminium Casters' Association of India and managed by Arkey Conference Service Cell (ACSC) Pune.

Over 325 delegates participated in the event. 20 technical papers were presented at the conference. A few product presentations were also made. An exhibition of 45 stalls in which 38 exhibitors show cased their products was also held on the occasion.

Inauguration
The event was inaugurated by Mr. Pravir Kumar, IAS, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India. In his speech, he appreciated the efforts made by the association for development of Die casting Industry and explained the various schemes, which are likely to come into force. He specially explained the cluster development schemes where Industry and Government can play great roles. The schemes related to the technology development and export development. He assured of all the possible co-operation that the association needs.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Mr. G.S. Sandhu, Principal Secretary Technical Education Department, Government of Rajasthan, explained how technical educators and industry should make an effort to attract new manpower toward core industries, otherwise industry will face great difficulty in getting manpower.

Dr. Ashok Dalwai. IAS, Commissioner cum Secretary, Department of industries, Government of Orissa who was one of the Guests at the conference explained various attractive schemes setup by the Orissa government and invited industry to come to Orissa. The 50th edition of the ALUCAST journal was also released by him.

Mr S.S. Liu, Executive Director, L.K. Machinery International Ltd., Hongkong was one of the Invited guests at the conference.

The publication Best of ALUCAST, a collection of selected technical papers from the papers presented at ALUCAST conferences from 1995 to 2006 was released by Mr Liu. The publication is available from ALUCAST.

Technical sessions
The technical sessions were ably conducted by MR R.A.R Prasad, Chairman, Technical Papers Committee. In all twenty papers and 3 product presentations were made in nine sessions over three days. The high light of the conference was the presentation of papers by the students of the Metallurgical Department of the Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur.

ALUCAST awards
The awards committee this year presented the following awards:

Panel Discussion
The subject for the panel discussion was HR related issues faced by the industry. The panel discussion was conducted by Mr. P Sukumaran Menon. The panel consisted of Mr. A. K. Bhandari Advisor, Technical Planning & Policy Committee, Ministry of Mines, Mr. Vishwajeet Banerjee, Vice President, Continental Engines Limited, Mr David Thomas, President DTP Die Cast Solutions, USA and Mr Anand Joshi, Consultant, Pune. The discussion was started of by Mr Menon, and continued for one and a half hours.

In conclusion it was recommended that ALUCAST should take the lead and set up a training center to train not only at entrance level but also as CE training programme / refresher courses. Mr. V. Banerjee stressed the need of tailor-made in house training programmes.

Valedictory function
In the concluding session the President Mr. P.N.Sadhu made a special appeal to every one to be part of ALUCAST and make it stronger. Mr. B.S.Bhatia, Member Board, Ordnance, Kolkatta his valedictory address, appreciated the new technology showcased in the exhibition and appealed that it be used to develop castings specially for defense, in fact he assured all support to ACAI.

Mr. H. Schmueser of Buhler Druckguss expressed his extremely happiness with the event and in his address he assured complete support to ALUCAST 2008 and activities of ACAI.

Mr. R. T. Kulkarni made a presentation on ALUCAST 2008 and he made special mention that out 2250 out of 3200 sqmeters is already booked. This will be a mega event at Chennai from 11th to 14th December 2008.

Germany and Italy have shown keen interest to take country pavilions. Mr. T. Parabhraman Organising Committee Chairman ALUCAST 2008 appealed to every one to be a part of ALUCAST 2008 and make it a grand success.

Vote of Thanks
In the vote of thanks given by Mr. R.T.Kulkarni, Hon. Secretary ALUCAST at the end of the conference, Mr Kulkarni specially thanked Dr. Ashok Sharma, Professor and Head of Department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering of The Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, who in his capacity of Chairman Organising Committee ALUCAST 2007 was instrumental in getting the institute associated with ALUCAST for the first time. He also thanked the Director of the institute, Professor R.P. Dahiya for the excellent arrangements made, and expressed the hope that such collaborative efforts will continue in our future events.