GENERAL NEWS Deep drawing conference
The 42nd Conference of the International Deep Drawing Research Group , IDDRG 2023 , will be held from 19-22 June 2023 in Luleå , Sweden .
Conference topics will include formability ; fossil-free steel ; sustainable materials and material forming . The programme will also cover advanced / smart materials ; bipolar plates and multi-material concepts / solutions . Lightweight structures ; digital transformation ; digitalisation and smart factories / press shops will also come under the spotlight .
Subjects such as cold and hot forming and trimming ( including single- and multistep forming ); tribology ; simulations ; testing ; springback ; surface quality ; tooling and additive manufacturing will also be highlighted at the conference .
A range of Plenary speakers have been invited , including Per-Emil Back ( R & D Director , Gestamp R & D , Sweden ); Bart Carleer ( AutoForm Engineering , Switzerland );
Vincent Grolleau ( Senior Scientist at the Chair of Artificial Intelligence in Mechanics and Manufacturing at ETH ’ s Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering ) and Mathias Liewald ( Head of the Institute for Forming Technology at the University of Stuttgart , Germany ).
Martin Pei , Executive Vice President & CTO , SSAB AB ( Swedish Steel ) and Mats Sigvant ( Technical Leader in Sheet Metal Forming Simulations , Volvo Cars , Sweden ) will also be speaking at the conference . n
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. iddrg2023 . org /
EU passenger car registrations rise in April
“ In April 2023 , the EU car market saw a significant increase in passenger car registrations with 803,188 units sold ( 17.2 % growth on the previous year ). All the EU ’ s major markets grew solidly in April , with Italy (+ 29.2 %) and France (+ 21.9 %) leading the way ,” commented the European Automobile Manufacturers ’ Association ( ACEA ).
“ From January to April 2023 , the EU car market grew by 17.8 % to 3.5 million registered cars . Despite the year-on-year improvement , sales were still down by 22.8 % compared to the same period in 2019 , highlighting the EU car market ’ s ongoing struggle . Among the four major EU markets , Spain (+ 33.7 %) saw the highest gains followed by Italy (+ 26.9 %), France (+ 16.7 %) and Germany (+ 7.9 %),” it continued .
According to the association , the market share of battery electric cars experienced a significant upturn in April , rising from 9.1 % to 11.8 %. While hybrids now represent 24.8 % of the EU new car market , petrol cars continue to dominate with the largest share at 38.2 %, it said .
“ Despite a 4.3 % growth in March , the EU market for plug-in hybrid vehicles ( PHEVs ) declined in April ( -5.5 %), with sales dropping significantly in Germany ( -45.7 %), the largest market for this fuel type . Consequently , the overall PHEV market share declined from 9.2 % in April last year to 7.4 % in 2023 ,” continued ACEA .
“ New petrol car registrations in the EU had another strong month in April , with sales increasing by 17.3 %, reaching 306,757 units . The EU diesel car market remained stable in April (+ 0.03 %). Diesel cars represent 14.7 % of the EU market share , down from 17.2 % in April 2022 .” n
CLOOS registers record figures
The CLOOS Group has closed the 2022 financial year with record figures . The welding and automation specialists from Haiger , Germany , increased turnover orders by nearly 30 per cent to more than 200-million euros compared to the previous year .
“ We , too , are currently facing numerous challenges ranging from material and supply bottlenecks to the shortage of skilled workers and the effects of the energy crisis ,” said CEO , Stephan Pittner . “ Despite these generally difficult conditions in the mechanical engineering sector , we can look back on a very successful business year .”
CLOOS intends to continue on this growth course . The group expects order intake and turnover to increase at a disproportionately high rate in 2023 . The potential for automated welding robot systems is enormous worldwide , said Pittner . Today , CLOOS has an export rate of more than 80 per cent . In addition to important markets in Germany and Europe , its number one growth market continues to be China with a further upward trend . However , CLOOS is also experiencing high demand for various automation solutions in North America .
Its budget for research and development , it told ISMR , is already above the industry average and is expected to increase further in 2023 . Its focus is on the individual requirements of customers when it comes to new and further development of welding machines , welding processes and automation components .
The CLOOS robot family .
Another development focus is its digital solutions . These will be combined in a complete platform in the future .
Since 1919 , Carl Cloos Schweisstechnik
GmbH has been a specialist in welding technology . It has over 900 employees and offers welding power sources and robots , positioners and special purpose machines . It also develops and manufactures automated welding systems . n www . cloos . de
Left : Stephan Pittner , CEO , CLOOS Group .
8 | ismr . net | ISMR June 2023