Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers!

2021 ends in a few days. However, the Covid-19 pandemic is not ending, which continues to hamper economic activity around the world.

What is more, the sanitary restrictions related to the pandemic did not facilitate our association activities.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, the Association organized a national conference – Metallurgy 2020 and co-organized two international conferences, the III International Conference of Casting and Materials Engineering ICCME 2021 and the 13th International Conference “Innovations in pressure die-casting”. All of those conference proved to be very popular, hosting a few dozen participants each. Unfortunately, the regulation in force regarding the do’s and don’ts in connection with the epidemic did not allow us to organize closed training courses. At the moment, it is difficult for us to forecast our activity for 2022. We end the year of 2021 with a ceremonial meeting on the occasion of the Polish Foundryman’s Day 2021 and the Jubilee of the 85^th anniversary of STOP.

The current issue 11–12/2021 of Przegląd Odlewnictwa (Foundry Review) is mainly dedicated to the celebration of the STOP Jubilee. On the pages of this issue, we present a brief history of the Association’s 85-year activity, the most important events and personalities associated with STOP history. The article is based on a prepared extensive STOP Monograph.

In the notebook you will also find articles about the current and forecasted economic situation and the prevailing moods in the domestic, European and global foundry industry. The provided statistics can be used by enterprises to prepare future action strategies.

In addition, in this issue you will find:

• The latest news on ferrous alloys prices,
• EUROGUSS 2022 announcement: rich offer and accompanying program in four exhibition halls,
• Air filtration processes in die casting,
• Energy-and-system – an intelligent tool for production planning and energy management in foundry plants, by Mariola Sawczuk, Dawid Lasek, Damian Kurek,
• Obelisk of the construction of the Brzeski Tract (Work Monument), by Marek Skowron,
• XVII Report Conference of the Metallurgy Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences METALLURGIA 2020,
• X Seminar Meeting of Polish MAGMASOFT® Users,
• 25 years in good shape.

Handing over to your hands, Dear Readers, the last issue of the Foundry Review in 2021, on behalf of the Editorial Board and myself,
I would like to thank you for the whole year of cooperation and support. I also wish you all the best for Christmas, and in the coming 2022, I wish all Founders, friends and colleagues health, peace, prosperity and success in their daily work and private life. Let your hopes and dreams come true in the coming 2022, and let the planned tasks be performed at the highest level.

Tadeusz Franaszek – Editor-in-Chief