Quality Enhancement of Foundry Products - A Case Study of Foundry Industry of Sri Lanka

Senior Lecturer, Department of Materials Engineering Dr., MSc (Berlin), PhD (Berlin), Director/ Postgraduate Studies, Faculty of Engineering The foundry industry in Sri Lanka dates back to as far as the second century BC and is still in its developing stage. The quality of foundry cast products manufactured in Sri Lanka is not up to a competent level with the international market. Highly labour intensive methods used, compared to other sectors of the metal working industry, and low productivity can be considered as significant reasons for the less competitiveness. Also, the technological development of this industry is stagnated and it should be improved to a great extent. This deficiency may be due to lack of knowledge in modern technology, unavailability of experts, scarcity of quality raw materials and inadequate new investments. All these factors are also highly influenced by the industrial policies implemented in Sri Lanka. Hence, it is essential to carry out a detailed study on the present situation in Sri Lankan foundries so that appropriate modifications can be implemented to the existing system. The study presented in this paper reveals the present situation of the foundry industry in Sri Lanka, including types of foundry products and the significant defects concerned with. The methodology adopted for this study includes a national survey carried out among the foundry industries in Sri Lanka. This is done by a structured questionnaire survey and interviews carried out with key people in the industry. The data collected from this survey has been analyzed with PC software according to the districts, types of foundries, items produced and the types of defects. In the latter part of this work, further studies will be carried out experimentally to enhance the total quality of the foundry products