Final Press Release of the 8th edition of Aluminium Two Thousand World Congress that took place from May 14th to May 18th, 2013 in Milan - Italy

ALUMINIUM TWO THOUSAND, 8TH WORLD CONGRESS

IN MILAN 400 PARTICIPANTS FROM 52 COUNTRIES

The Aluminium Two Thousand 8th World Congress officially closed on May 18^th, but it’s echo is still strong.

The great number of papers (120) presented have brought to the attention of the aluminium industry very innovative technologies and some of them have already been requested to some qualified speakers and to their companies for industrial application in the near future.

The technical committee formed by Prof. Lorenzo Donati and Prof. Luca Tomesani of the University of Bologna, Italy for extrusion, Dr. Walter Dalla Barba, of Interall, Italy for finishing, Dr. Rosario Squatrito of the University of Bologna, Italy for casting and Eng. Luca Magagnin of AIMF, Italy for metallurgy, alloys billets & related equipment, measuring, testing & quality techniques, rolling assigned awards to the best papers for innovative content. Here following are the winners of the awards and the reasons for which their papers were considered particularly outstanding:

Extrusion

Dong-Zhi Sun, Fraunhofer Institute For Mechanics Of Materials Iwm, Germany with his paper entitled “Characterization and modeling of the deformation and damage behavior of thick-walled aluminum profiles” for the experimental analytical activity for the prediction of the deformation of extruded profiles in case of impact.

Antonio Segatori, DIN-Dept. Of Industrial Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy with his paper entitled “Prediction of grain shape evolution during extrusion and annealing of 6XXX alloy” for his theoretical and experimental approach on prediction of the evolution of the microstructure.

Joseph C. Benedyk, Thermal Processing Technology Center, USA with his paper entitled “Stress Accelerated Tempering of Hot Work Steels as a Failure Mechanism in Aluminum Extrusion Tooling and Die Casting Dies” for the excellent review of the behavior of hot steels for tools and for the cultural passion in the field of aluminium alloys.

Finishing:

Jude Mary Runge, Compcote International, Inc., USA with her paper entitled “Base metal microstructure considerations for anodizing wrought aluminum alloys” for the highly scientific approach in the study of the characteristics of anodic oxide.

Mary Oakley, Potashcorp, USA, with her paper entitled “Aluminum Bright Dipping – Theory and Practice” for the clarity of her presentation and the high interest generated by the explanation of the mechanism of the formation of surfaces of anodic oxide with mirror effect by means of chemical brightening.

Fabio Vincenzi, Italtecno, Italy, with his paper entitled “Development of an innovative "super" seal with improved acid corrosion resistance and new feature: resistance to alkali” for the high level of innovation in research and in the industrial development of a sealing product for anodic oxide with high resistance to acid corrosion (superior to other conventional sealing products) and with alkaline resistance properties (required by various industries for example the automotive one).

Foundry:

Hai-Lin Chen, Thermo-Calc Software Ab, Sweden with his paper entitled “Prediction of phase formation during solidification, solution heat treatment, and aging of aluminum alloys using the TCAL database” for the interesting application potentials of the numerical methods for prediction of microstructure characteristics during solidification following thermal treatments of metal alloys.

Elisabetta Gariboldi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy with her paper entitled “Prolonged aging effects on the high-temperature behaviour of Al age-hardenable alloys” for the rigor of the scientific method used in the study of the effects deriving from ageing treatments of aluminium alloys.

Annalisa Pola, University of Brescia, Italy with her paper entitled “Influence of process parameters in ultrasonic treatment of AlSi alloys” for the interestingexperimental and numerical applications for the development of advanced treatments of metallic alloys in melting processes.

A special award was assigned to Dr. Arthur Brace for his 60 years of studies in anodizing and for the innovative research work presented at the Congress about “The New Model of Anodic Coating Formation”.

The side “offers” of the Congress were the exhibition at Hotel Melia with the participation of leading aluminium industries, the 3 workshops (extrusion, anodizing, coating) the technical visits to leader companies (Profilati, Bodega, Presezzi, Ponzio) and the social programs (opera at Teatro Alla Scala, a Classical Music Concert, 3 tours for accompany persons and the final sightseeing tour for all participants to the Borromeo Islands in Lake Maggiore).

Going back to the 3 congress days, we have to report great participation at the plenary session on Tuesday May 14^th with the overview of the aluminium market trends in the different areas of the globe by M.Conserva –Metra, Italy, M. Georgiou -CRU Group, UK, M. Daylami - Gulf Aluminium Council , U.A.E., M. Palatiello, - Wings Partners , Italy, A. K. Sivakumar - Zak Trade , India, S. Meirsschaut - Estal , Belgium, D. Brodalla – Estal, Germany.

Good attention also for the Focus Africa, where the ambassadors and consuls of Angola, Mozambique , Ghana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland presented the business opportunities for international aluminium industries for investments or just for business in these emerging African Countries.

In the box is the opening speech by Dr. Walter Dalla Barba, chairman of the Congress.

Now there is great expectation for the announcement that will be given in a few weeks of the venue of the next Congress in 2015.

ALUMINIUM TEO THOUSAND 8TH WORLD CONGRESS OPENING SPEECH

Dear Ladies and Gentleman,

on behalf of the Interall Organizing Committee,

I am proud and glad to open the Aluminium Two Thousand 8^th World Congress and to welcome all of you, speakers, delegates and exhibitors, coming from 50 countries clearly represented by all the flags displayed in this room.

The motto of this congress “creativity and innovation, a change for growth” anticipates the content of most of the presentations with their messages on technological innovation in order to suggest how to win the challenges of the beginning of the new millennium: we will face a very competitive industry, a global market with  the crisis of the most industrialized countries, the sudden new requests of the emerging countries without any real and long experience in dealing with them.

Sometimes innovation may appear as a traumatic event. The trend to create a “learning organization” is very popular, but it does not solve all problems. In fact it is also very important to create an “unlearning organization”, an organization that unlearns , in particular old habits and the old ways of operating. Why do children learn much faster than adults? In part because there is less that they have to unlearn!

Here is a simple suggestion: in order to be open to what’s new, our minds must have a different attitude and try to “forget “ the old way of working.

Companies must enrich their capital by continuously introducing innovations in their products, in their processes, in their organization. The right answer to this problem is the result of a compromise between the internal resources and the external environment, such as suppliers, technology producers, specialized external workers, customers, associations.

In other words, in order to become and stay innovative, a company must know how to develop and apply a “cooperation culture” that must be complementary to the “competition culture”.

Companies that apply only a competition and conquering policy, usually become destroying forces of entire parts of the economy and society.

The culture of cooperation is mainly visible in strategic alliances among different companies, and it is fundamental for the economic growth of the market of the same field and in order to overcome the problems that are in common (ecology, better living conditions, creation of new jobs).

Suppliers, customers and social entities must collaborate, not occasionally but continuously.

This is what I call global vision in the medium and long period.

NOW IN CONCLUSION

Creativity and innovation are key factors also for the growth of the aluminium industry, but in a global market another factor is also extremely important: “cooperation” among producers, customers, suppliers and final users so that 1+1 can really make 3 or even 4. And in order to get this result  you need to meet potential partners  and experts for modernizing and rendering more efficient the production plants or the commercial organizations.

We have a  tremendous opportunity here these days together. Even if we have started to replace “personal” interaction with “multimedia” interaction, the economic crisis of the most industrialized parts of the world has shown that “internet”, “chatting”, “e-commerce” and “mobile” phones are just instruments, and not the solution for the development of the world economy.

The  growth” can become reality only through “cooperation” and the basis of cooperation is meeting and sharing knowledge and experience, creating networks with talented people or talented  companies with a few clear common targets.

This is my best wish for all of us these days in this Congress. Thank you for your presence and your contribute to the success of our aluminium industry in every part of the world.

Walter Dalla Barba,

Chairman of the Congress

Based on Aluminium Two Thousand Congress