Break the Conventions!

Breaking conventions sounds like a terrible idea, as these principles have brought you to your current position over the last decades. And you can be absolutely proud of your achievements!

In the picture, you can see something unconventional. The go-to glass for drinking champagne is a small flute-shaped glass. However, everyone else has these massive Masskrüge (beer glasses) when you are at an Octoberfest. Every time you cheer in, you spill the champagne and risk breaking the glass.

Or you can adapt to the situation. This is precisely what my sister did. She asked for a Masskrug and poured her secco into that glass. That solved two problems for her. Now she could cheer in with the other beer drinkers, and when she changed over to another table, she didn’t need to carry the glass and the bottle. This was pretty unconventional, and she got a lot of stares when she asked for an empty jug. But it solved her “problems” by breaking the conventional choice of glass.

Like in that example, there is beauty in doing the unconventional. And I bet you thought this was strange at first glance, too. People were turning their heads, and it got attention and laughs. When she considered breaking the convention, she didn’t throw her taste overboard and started drinking beer. She stayed true to her preferred choice of locally produced Secco, only changing the surroundings of her drink of choice.

What can the Foundry Industry learn from this story?

When we transfer that example to our industry, we see the automotive crisis starting to build up and sales volumes plummeting. You don’t need to throw all your principles overboard, but you need to break one or two to solve the new problems in a completely new way.

The improvements must lie in a new way of thinking. Doing the conventional thing and cutting your scrap rate from 5% to 1% does not yield much when you’re missing 70% of your revenue.

Start looking for products outside the well-known portals. Research different industries and try to solve their problems through HPDC castings. A great tool to access new markets is Rheocasting.

Rheocasting the solution to your Business Development

In conventional HPDC, the castability drops drastically when you reduce the silicon content, which you have to do when you want to cast large structures or get rid of the heat treatment. A lower silicon content also reduces the carbon footprint of the whole alloy.

In Rheocasting an AlSi2 alloy can easily be cast. This alloy competes with machining pure aluminium heat sinks and easily becomes the preferred supplier with a fraction of the production costs. You can also take over high-volume die castings into Rheocasting without an alloy change and double the HPDC tool lifetime.

If developing a new business is a high priority in the raging automotive crisis for you, then follow the link to the Rheocasting Strategy Development Package or directly schedule a free consultation down below.