The event is organised by fka GmbH in cooperation with ika. What role does fka currently play in vehicle development – and in which areas are you particularly well positioned in the market?
Lutz Berger: For more than 40 years, fka GmbH has played a central role as an interdisciplinary development service provider in the early stages of tomorrow's mobility development. As an important interface between university research institutions and OEMs and suppliers, we combine scientific excellence with industrial implementation strength.
We are particularly well positioned in the market when it comes to forward-looking innovation topics – especially in the areas of modularity, sustainability, artificial intelligence, user-centred development, automated driving and ‘software-defined vehicles’.
Mega- or gigacasting is on everyone's lips. How do you assess the relevance of this concept for the industry as a whole? What technical or economic hurdles do you currently see in the use of large-format castings?
Lutz Berger: Most OEMs are now involved in megacasting, some still in the research and development phase, others already with initial series applications and the corresponding infrastructure, especially in China. In addition, a strong supplier industry has developed there in recent years, which also operates plants directly at the OEM. Thus, the relevance can currently be assessed as high, especially since the pressure on the industry to reduce production time and complexity is also high.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen to what extent megacasting will establish itself, both in terms of its areas of application in car bodies and in terms of the vehicle segments in which the corresponding components are used. There are also approaches to producing large-format castings with a lower degree of integration on more conventional die-casting machines. This is because the high investment costs, including those for the building infrastructure required for megacasting machines, represent a significant economic hurdle. On the technical side, building up expertise in process and component design is a hurdle that should not be underestimated.
