John Moreland, Senior Research Scientist at CIVS presented his paper titled “Virtual Reality Simulator for Die Casting Workforce Development” at the 2022 NADCA Die Casting Congress in the session of Machine Learning and Modeling to Improve Die Casting.

In addition to Moreland’s paper presentation, he conducted live VR demonstrations on the exhibition floor. This project helps to improve operator understanding of die casting machines and melter furnaces. It allows them to practice common and abnormal situations for operation and maintenance in a controlled environment.

The Die Casting Congress and Exhibition allows members of the global die casting industry to gather insights, and information to improve business performance by participating in technical paper presentations and informational exhibitions.

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On September 14th, Kyle Toth, Senior Research Engineer and John Moreland, Senior Research Scientist presented AR/VR training applications at the 2-day joint Safety Committee meeting held by the Steel Manufacturing Association (SMA) and the Association for Iron and Steel Technology (AIST).

Kyle Toth is also a AIST Health and Safety Technology Committee Papers Chair, along with John Moreland who is a AIST Health and Safety Technology Committee Member were able to take notes on emerging issues and solutions approaches from industry representatives.

The Safety Committee meeting focused on Serious Injuries and Fatality (SIF) tracking and mobile equipment hazards, as well as various safety concerns in the safety industry. The collaboration opportunity led to new connections with staff and their facilities that ordinarily are not exposed to consortium work. Attendance by CIVS staff was vital in encouraging further collaboration within the industry.

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On August 31, 2022, CIVS welcomed thirteen executives from SSAB Americas where they were able to witness first-hand the innovative research efforts by CIVS staff and students using cutting edge simulation and visualization technologies.

Members of our CIVS team, Dr. Tyamo Okosun, Dr. Armin Silaen, Associate Research Professors; Kyle Toth, Nick Walla, Senior research Engineers; John Moreland, Senior Research Scientist and CIVS Director, Dr. Chenn Zhou, welcomed SSAB Executives:

Brent Major (Senior Director, Strategy), Greg Scott (Vice President, Human Resources), Tom Cox (General Manager) Sunday Abraham (Director, R&D), Mike Cooke (Director, Technical Services), Steve Fulton (Director, Transportation), Taylor Gould, Shannon Johnson (Director, Safety), Nick Pappas (Assistant General Counsel), Jason Pangracs (Controller, Value+), Susan Taylor (Senior Director, Planning and Scheduling), Derrick Martin (Director, IT), Susan Taylor (Operations Manager, St. Paul CTLL), and Robin Rose (Director, Commercial Sales, SSAB Americas).

During the visit, presentations of CIVS & SMSVC overviews and projects were made in the CIVS Theater followed by hands-on experiences with AR & VR projects in the visualization lab. Extensive discussions were made in the topics of decarbonization and electrification. The visit ended on a high note with a few ideas for a future collaboration. https://www.pnw.edu/civs/news/

Purdue University Northwest (PNW) faculty, staff, students, and collaborators with PNW’s Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation (CIVS) visited Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the summer to attend the Association for Iron & Steel Technology 2022 conference and exposition (AISTech 2022). They presented eight technical papers, demonstrated CIVS projects, and won three prestigious awards at the industry’s premier technology event.

Chenn Zhou, NIPSCO Distinguished Professor of Engineering Simulation and director of CIVS, was recognized as the AIST Distinguished Member and Fellow, one of only two this year chosen from more than 18,500 members to receive the esteemed award.

“I am deeply honored and humbled,” said Zhou. “I very much appreciate the people who nominated and endorsed me for this great honor, along with the AIST board and staff, all of my collaborators and sponsors, as well as colleagues and students at Purdue Northwest.”

CIVS graduate research assistant John Rosser won first place in the AIST graduate student poster contest. His poster, “Reducing Blast Furnace CO2 Emissions with H2,” focused on the injection of hydrogen gas into blast furnaces with the aim of reducing the process’s significant carbon footprint.

CIVS researchers and collaborators Nicholas Walla, Zhankun Luo, Chenn Zhou, Bin Chen (Purdue Fort Wayne), and Yury Krotov (Steel Dynamics, Inc.) received third place for the 2022 Hunt-Kelly Outstanding Paper Award for their paper, “Smart Ladle: AI-Based Tool for Optimizing Casting Temperature.”

“These awards once again demonstrate how CIVS plays a leading role in not only generating original new knowledge and understanding of critical processes in the steel industry, but also facilitating the transfer of advances in research to industrial practice,” said Dietmar Rempfer, interim dean of the College of Engineering and Sciences at PNW. “The meaningful engagements that these projects provide for our students serve to fulfill an important part of the mission of Purdue Northwest as the premier metropolitan university of Northwest Indiana.”

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In early August, several members of the CIVS “Smart Ladle” team were invited by Chase Ault of Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) Butler Division to tour their steelmaking plant in Butler, Indiana.  The tour covered the entirety of the process, including an in-depth look at the steel refining ladle and the casting processes, and a walkthrough of the rolling process that converts the steel slabs into coils of thin steel sheets.  CIVS members were met with several SDI engineers and operators, gaining insight into the steel production process as well as ideas for collaboration.  After the tour of the facility, CIVS members Nick Walla, Yanan Song, and graduate student Venkata Mogali met with Chase Ault to discuss the next steps for the Smart Ladle.

SDI Butler has worked closely with CIVS and the SMSVC to build the award-winning Smart Ladle, which uses machine learning to predict future behavior of the steel casting process to help improve operational stability and efficiency.  SDI has been a long-standing partner with CIVS as part of the Steel Manufacturing Simulation and Visualization Consortium (SMSVC), where cutting-edge steel research works to improve process efficiency and reduce environmental impacts while also improving productivity.

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A CIVS virtual reality project for die casting industry workforce development and skill preparation is getting a lot of attention in its final year of development. This project is sponsored by Defense Logistics Agency through the American Metalcasting Consortium’s Innovative Casting Technologies program, and will be featured at two conferences and in an upcoming journal this fall.

The 2022 Sand Casting conference will be held on September 12th-14th, 2022 in Milwaukee, WI, and the virtual reality project will be discussed as part of the keynote address titled “Creating the Metalverse”. The NADCA Die Casting Congress and Tabletop will be held in Lexington, KY, on September 13th-15th, 2022 and will feature a paper presentation and live VR demonstrations on the exhibition floor. The project will also be highlighted in the editorial of an upcoming issue of the International Journal of MetalCasting (IJMC).

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