SMEMACH ADI Industry Insights: Austempered Ductile Iron Trends & Data

（China Foundry Association, November 10, 2025） According to the latest customs statistics, China's casting exports from January to September 2025 presented a divergent trend of "overall growth but decline to the US." The 20 HS codes classified as cast products accumulated exports of 4.763 million tons, up 4.4% year-on-year; total export value reached US$13.23 billion, up 3.7% year-on-year, achieving double growth in both volume and value. However, exports to the US market saw a notable decline, with export volume of 1.034 million tons and value of US$3.16 billion, down 11.9% and 5.4% respectively year-on-year.

Today, let's join SMEMACH in exploring the efficiency trade-offs between welding, casting, and forging in the manufacturing process selection of mechanical parts. As the global mechanical manufacturing sector accelerates towards high-precision and high-performance development, the selection of manufacturing processes for mechanical parts has become a crucial factor influencing the overall performance, operational costs, and usage efficiency of equipment. Currently, the industry faces numerous challenges: Firstly, heavy-duty components need to strike a balance between lightweight design and high strength. Secondly, complex working conditions demand that key components possess excellent impact resistance. Thirdly, the small and medium-sized repair market urgently requires cost-effective spare part solutions.

Hello everyone! Today, we are going to delve into the significant differences between roasting of pouring ladles and heating pouring ladles with hot iron liquid in preventing gas holes, slag holes, and inclusions in castings. In the field of foundry production, according to strict process requirements, pouring ladles generally need to be roasted before use. It is absolutely not allowed to heat the ladles directly with hot iron liquid, and even more so, the hot iron liquid used for heating the ladle should not be poured directly into the molten iron in the electric furnace. In fact, "heating the ladle with hot iron liquid" is a highly non-standard operation that should be strictly prohibited.

On the vast oceans, giant ships cut through the waves, symbolizing modern industrial civilization. Shipyards are the cradles where these giants are born. In the shipbuilding industry, welding large structures is an extremely critical process. Improvements in welding efficiency and the quality of welded components have a significant impact on the construction progress of the entire ship. Today, let's delve into the potential and direction of the intelligent welding transformation in shipyards.

As the wave of Industry 4.0 sweeps the globe, the foundry industry is undergoing a green transformation from traditional to intelligent. Digital management systems, with their core advantages of precision, efficiency, and traceability, have become a key tool for addressing the challenges of quality control in foundry products. From precise control of furnace temperature to quality traceability throughout the product lifecycle, from intelligent control of a single process to collaborative optimization of the entire process, digital technology is redefining quality standards in the foundry industry through multi-dimensional and profound technological breakthroughs.

Lord Lao alchemy furnace is no myth. Aboard the Chinese space station, approximately 400 kilometers above Earth, a real-life version of this "alchemy furnace" has successfully heated a tungsten alloy to over 3,100°C, setting a new world record. This "space alchemy furnace," hidden within the Chinese space station, is actually a containerless materials laboratory located within the Tianhe core module. For the past four years, it has been busy for “alchemy”. However, it isn't producing elixirs of immortality, but rather "heat-resistant" materials like tungsten alloys and niobium alloys that can withstand the intense flames of rocket engines, as well as some new materials.

Green casting is a sustainable development model centered on the 3R principles of a circular economy (reduce, reuse, and recycle). Through technological innovation and management optimization, it minimizes negative environmental impacts and maximizes resource efficiency throughout the life cycle of cast products.

Qingdao West Coast New Area, August 15-17, 2025—The 7th Shandong International Foundry Industry Exhibition (Shandong Foundry Exhibition), hosted by the Shandong Foundry Association and guided by the Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, will grandly open at the Qingdao World Expo City. Themed "Global Vision, Precise Positioning," this exhibition leverages Shandong's strengths in the foundry industry, benchmarks against cutting-edge international technologies, and focuses on high-end equipment, green materials, and intelligent processes, injecting new momentum into the industry's high-quality development.

The application of electron microscopy in defect detection of iron castings has brought revolutionary breakthroughs to the foundry industry, enabling precise quality control and process optimization at the microscopic level. Its value permeates multiple dimensions, including defect analysis, process improvement, quality control, R&D innovation, and industry standardization. Specifically, it is reflected in the following aspects:

In the "magical world" of metal material processing and heat treatment, normalizing, annealing, quenching and tempering are like four magicians with different personalities but super powers. They can give metal materials completely different "super powers" by waving their magic wands. However, for those who have just entered this field or have only a superficial understanding of heat treatment processes, these four magicians are often difficult to distinguish. Don't worry, today we will unveil their mystery and make them clear!