Today, many metalcasters still refer to themselves as foundrymen and to their plants as foundries. The problem is that when a group of casting buyers was asked what images came to mind when they heard the term foundry, they responded with: “dark, smoky, dangerous, fire, flames…”  Not exactly peaches and cream. Is this the image you want your customers to have when they think of you?

We need to move, as an industry, to the terms "metalcasting facilities" and "metalcasters" as much as possible. We've been using those terms for years in the magazine. Similarly, metalcasters should consider calling their products engineered cast components rather than castings or metal castings. We need to begin to focus on our process and the capabilities of our process because this is what sets us apart and labels us as unique to our customer base. We need to train our customers to think of us as high-tech manufacturers producing engineered products, so we can begin to eliminate the commodity buying mentality of our customers that is killing our profit margin.