消失模型（Lost Foam）は、発泡スチロール模型を乾燥砂に埋め、溶湯を注ぐことで模型が消失し複雑形状を一体成形できる工法です。多くの企業が量産化の難しさから撤退する中、森川産業は40年にわたり技術を維持し、世界最速クラスの造型サイクルや高歩留まりを実現。ブーム終焉後でも継続投資が競争優位を生む典型例となっています。

Lost Foam casting uses EPS patterns buried in dry sand. When molten metal is poured, the EPS vaporizes and disappears, forming the final casting without cores. This allows complex shapes to be produced in one piece, unlike traditional green sand casting which requires separate core production and assembly.

Many factories visualize defect data, yet the numbers often don’t make sense. In several plants I supported, the same production batch showed different defect rates depending on the inspector—2% by an expert versus 8% by others. The issue wasn’t product quality but human behavior shaped by inadequate KPIs. When inspectors are evaluated by “how many items they check,” speed is prioritized, judgment becomes inconsistent, and defect data becomes unreliable. This leads not only t

Many factories in Japan have started digitalization, yet progress often stalls. From my on‑site support experience, the main reasons are clear: factories avoid internet connectivity, visualization becomes the final goal instead of the starting point, data is not linked to management decisions, and data accuracy is taken for granted. Without connecting data to real operational and managerial decisions, digitalization remains a tool—not a driver of improvement.

Sand casting operations face bottlenecks, downtime, and limited traceability. Based on hands‑on projects in global foundries, this article explains how IoT, real‑time visualization, unified data, and AI can improve productivity—while also clarifying the limits of digital tools.