Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers!

The holidays have begun, so long awaited by many of us, especially after such a difficult time, working in the home office mode, and limitations in interpersonal relations.

For young people, holidays will surely be a time of rest, but for many it will be the time of preparations for new responsibilities connected to the start of education on the secondary or university level. This will be accompanied by the choice of a profession. It is very important because it concerns adult life and the future career path. It is good to make the choice after careful consideration of available options while bearing in mind the years of experience of relatives and taking into account one very important aspect – the profession should be “loved”, because only then even the hardest of professions can bring pleasure. It is worth remembering. The representatives of the foundry industry, which has been struggling with staff shortages for years, would be pleased if as many young people as possible “fell in love” with the foundry world. The industry needs modelers, molders and foundry engineers.

The holiday period is also a calm time in the pandemic situation. Still, however, a new school / academic year will begin during this unfavorable time. However, we hope that the signaled fourth wave of the pandemic will not prevent young people from adjusting to the new environment.

Our Association is also anxiously awaiting the moment that will allow us to participate in the ITM Industry Europe Fair and the specialist Focast Forum exhibition at Poznań International Fairs. We hope that this event, despite the persistent restrictions related to the pandemic, will be attended by a large group of foundry companies and other businesses cooperating with the foundry industry. The success of this event would have been a positive signal for the foundry industry as well as a success of promotional activities carried out in this area. And most importantly a signal to return to direct business contacts that we all long for so much.

Another trade fair event, important for the foundry industry, will be the autumn METAL Fairs. We also present the already prevailing moods in the exhibition industry in this issue in an interview with the President of Targi Kielce SA – Dr. Andrzej Mochoń.

Inside the issue you will also find a description of the domestic foundry industry’s situation in the previous year. The statistics of the foundry market were presented by the Association and the Foundry Chamber of Commerce, based on information from the industry. The background for the analysis was the world and domestic production of castings in 2019.

In this issue we also return to the column “Foundry Foreign Literature”, which for many was, and we hope will continue to be, a source of information about the foreign foundry market, news and innovations.

With this issue we are also starting a publication of a series of articles devoted to Industry 4.0, written by representatives of Odlewnia Polskie SA. The articles are to introduce readers to the subject of Industry 4.0 and indicate possible solutions and steps that can be taken to increase the level of automation and digitization in foundry companies.

We also cannot simply ignore the fact that our longtime Supporting Member Hüttenes Albertus Polska is celebrating its 25^th anniversary. On this special occasion, we would like to congratulate once again on such a well-established and strong position on the market, professional and dedicated staff and a wide range of loyal and satisfied customers. We encourage the Readers to get acquainted with the article on HA Polska.

In addition, in the latest issue you will find:

•      Anything but off-the-rack experts in unterneukirchen offer tailor-made metallurgical solutions,
•      The Disamatic® D5 is here: future-proof moulding performance for large castings,
•      3D printing innovations will take over Poznan,
•      Dlaczego elektrody grafitowe są tak ważne w produkcji stali?,
•      Otto Junker launch retrofit offensive for foundry and thermoprocessing equipment,
•      A solution to rapid changes of nozzle size in bottom pour applications.

Enjoy reading Przegląd Odlewnictwa. The presented articles are slowly bringing us closer to normalcy, which we hope will return in the last quarter of this year.

I wish this to all our Dear Readers.

Tadeusz Franaszek – Editor-in-Chief