Ashland and SinterCast Announce Global Alliance
DUBLIN, Ohio (USA) and STOCKHOLM (Sweden) - Ashland Casting Solutions, a business group within Ashland Specialty Chemical, a division of Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH), and SinterCast AB (publ) (Stockholmsbörsen O-List:SINT) have agreed to a global marketing and technical alliance.
Through their technical alliance, Ashland and SinterCast will collaborate to develop novel mold coatings, binders, resins and core materials to optimize the structure and properties of Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI) at the immediate mold/metal interface. The combined efforts will also be designed to strategically alter the thermal balance within the mold to optimize castability. The collaboration is designed to further improve the thinwall design flexibility of CGI in complex lightweight castings and expand the overall market potential of CGI.
Under the global marketing alliance, the parties will combine their products, services, engineering know-how and contact lists to introduce reliable CGI production technology to new markets and to deliver complete CGI production solutions to the world foundry industry.
Ashland's technology strengths in mold/metal interactions, and SinterCast's knowledge of CGI, will be brought together at Ashland's advanced facilities for research and development studies in Dublin.
"This alliance creates an industry leading initiative to expand CGI into other casting markets," said Mike Swartzlander, vice president, Ashland Specialty Chemical, and general manager, Ashland Casting Solutions. "With the unified expertise and innovation power of Ashland and SinterCast, we are confident that we can further improve our industry's capabilities to make the most of CGI's outstanding mechanical properties and true potential."
"SinterCast is enthusiastic about the technical and commercialpossibilities presented by this alliance," said Steve Dawson, president and chief executive officer, SinterCast. "Working together with Ashland will help us grow the overall CGI market potential and also provides us with an established and respected partner as we bring the SinterCast process control technology to new products and new geographical markets."
For more information about this alliance, contact Ashland Casting Solutions at (800) 848-7485 or SinterCast at +44 20 8891 8900.
About SinterCast
SinterCast AB (publ) is the world's leading supplier of online process control technology for the reliable high volume production of Compacted Graphite Iron. SinterCast's production agreements encompass a total of 25 foundries in 14 different countries that account for approximately 40 percent of the world production capacity for cast iron cylinder blocks and heads. SinterCast's foundry customers also produce a variety of other automotive and non-automotive components that range from 8 kg to 17 tons. To learn more about SinterCast, visit www.sintercast.com.
About Ashland
Ashland Casting Solutions, a business group of Ashland Specialty Chemical, is a leader in supplying products, processes and technologies to the global metal casting marketplace. The group has operations (including licensees and joint ventures) in 21 countries.
Ashland Specialty Chemical, a division of Ashland Inc., is a leading, worldwide supplier of specialty chemicals serving industries including adhesives, automotive, composites, metal casting, merchant marine, paint, paper, plastics, watercraft and water treatment. Visit www.ashspec.com to learn more about these operations.
Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) is a Fortune 500 transportation construction, chemicals and petroleum company providing products, services and customer solutions throughout the world. To learn more about Ashland, visit www.ashland.com.
