It almost seems obvious to emphasize the importance of investments for a company. In the case of a foundry, the invested funds primarily go to avant-garde components, such as the Foseco sleeves chosen by Fonderia Morini, which  are useful for the production process as well as the health of the workers. Investments can also go towards less tangible aspects, such as technologies and information systems.

Over its sixty-year-long history, Fonderia Morini has always believed in reinvesting part of its profits for improving its production as well as its technologies.

In recent years, Fonderia Morini has developed an increasing attention to the conditions of the environment and those of workers’ wellbeing.

With the aim of improving more and more in both these fields, Fonderia Morini has also started a collaboration with Foseco, a world leader in the supply of foundry consumables and solutions.

Antonio Magnani has been working at Fonderia Morini for thirty years. He started at the very beginning of the company’s history, when there was only one shed available, and he saw the foundry grow and expand to today's level.

His role as Quality Manager includes quality controls, management of the quality certifications for various authorities and product industrialization, namely the process leading from the data provided by the customer to the final mould.

Find out more about Antonio Magnani's role and the quality controls at Fonderia Morini in his interview for our YouTube channel.

Over the years, customer needs change and evolve. It is only natural that, with them, the qualitative demands also naturally change.

Fonderia Morini has directly experienced the way in which, over the years, customers have become increasingly demanding in terms of quality and quality controls. Therefore, to continue to provide its high standards, the company has chosen to invest in cutting-edge equipment, becoming self-sufficient in internal controls. These include, among others, dimensional checks, non-destructive checks and surface checks.

Another important investment that Fonderia Morini has made in order to offer even more value to its customers is represented by a casting simulation software.

Assofond (the Italian Foundry Association, of which Fonderia Morini is a member) has published on its website a short guide on the use of the tools offered by the association on the subject of raw materials and production input. In addition to presenting the tools, the guide suggests a methodological approach to understand them and apply them in practice, so as to support member foundries in their activities and in the interaction with their customers.

The guide can be downloaded free of charge from the attachments to this article and from the official Assofond website.

What is the purpose of the Assofond guide?

The aim of the guide offered by Assofond is to provide member foundries with a map of the tools made available by the association itself to document the evolution of the main production inputs used to make a casting. Furthermore, the guide suggests a possible methodological approach to understand and apply these inputs.

The guide states that the proposed system intends to "determine a measure, as objective as possible, of the value of the casting over time, such as to configure constant profitability in real economic terms, assuming constant physical volumes and the real value of the invested capital."

The method proposed by Assofond is, in the final analysis, a starting point on which foundries and their customers can make an effective comparison.