Dr Per Larsen is Innovation Manager at DISA Industries A/S, part of Norican, since 2006. With nearly 30 years of experience at the heart of the foundry business, his expertise runs from tackling casting quality problems to identifying new opportunities for clients and turning them into profit. He’s the perfect person to oversee DISA’s latest test foundry, which is applying DISA’s fast, flexible green sand process to an ever-broader range of aluminium casting applications. 

AL Circle: Die casting is often the default choice for producing aluminium castings. Why is DISA’s green sand moulding process an attractive alternative for aluminium components?

Dr Per Larsen: Green sand delivers superb quality, excellent surface finish and super-fast production for many types of aluminium castings, at a lower cost than die casting. In fact, the surface finish is close to low-pressure die casting and other permanent mould processes.

But because you get the high speeds and low costs previously only seen for high-volume iron casting production, green sand can give aluminium foundries a big competitive edge. We see savings of up to 15 per cent on cost per casting.

Over 30 foundries globally already cast aluminium with DISA green sand. Short cycle times typically make DISA equipment five times quicker than die casting, but fast pattern changes keep it flexible too. Core handling on DISA machines is fast and easy, so it’s perfect for complex, core-intensive castings. Tooling is far cheaper than permanent moulds too. US aluminium caster BQC’s DISA MATCH tooling costs 10 per cent of permanent moulds, with six times the lifetime.

AL Circle: Could you please walk us through DISA’s green sand moulding solutions, machines, and techniques? How are they different from other moulding technologies available in the market?

Dr Per Larsen: Our green sand process suits both high volume aluminium production and jobbing foundries with short runs and lower volumes. Some of our customers produce less than 100 tonnes annually and others more than 10,000 tonnes. DISA leads through constant R&D innovation, and by supplying – and always supporting – foundry equipment of the very highest quality. Our machines make rock-solid, pin-sharp moulds that create high quality castings — and do it for decades.

We offer a wide range of moulding technologies and can supply everything from a single moulding machine to a turnkey Complete Foundry, including installation. Flexible yet fast, the matchplate DISA MATCH is particularly popular with aluminium foundries, producing up to 210 moulds per hour, or 210 shots per hour to use die-casting language. The DISAMATIC C3 employs DISA-invented vertical moulding for even higher output speeds but still offers rapid pattern changes and is extremely cost-competitive. Our vertical-moulding DISAMATIC D3 and D5 models are ideal for high volume production and can produce up to 555 moulds per hour.

We can show alu casting producers how these green sand lines would fit their business – and work with them and our test foundry to explore green sand as a high-speed, highly cost-efficient alternative to die casting.

Dr AL Circle: How does embedding automation in your moulding and casting solutions raise operational efficiency and casting output volumes while maintaining or even improving product quality and consistency? Does DISA also apply AI to optimise aluminium casting cost and quality?

Per Larsen: DISA green sand is a high-tech process that employs advanced, highly-automated machines, from auto pattern changes and line speed control to pouring, cooling, sorting, and shakeout. A fully-automated DISA line can be started by a single operator and can then effectively run “hands off”. That has obvious labour cost and recruitment advantages but there are many other benefits. Automating sub-processes like pouring or core setting cuts cycle times and so boosts production output. Product quality and consistency also improves because you’re simultaneously removing manual variability: our machines and robots do the job the right way, every time.

That’s a definite yes for AI too – it’s how we automate predictive analytics and make it accessible for any foundry, large or small. Our Monitizer digital platform is now installed in 30 countries globally and the Monitizer | PRESCRIBE solution applies AI-driven analytics to optimise an entire green sand process. By analysing live process data, PRESCRIBE provides real-time, automated recommendations (or “prescriptions”) to adjust machine and process parameters, preventing casting defects before they occur.

This delivers stable, high quality production that cuts scrap and other waste to an absolute minimum at foundries like Condals in Spain and Morikawa in Japan; over 40 per cent scrap reduction on average is typical and over 85 per cent is seen in some cases. That seriously reduces cost per casting and improves our customers’ (and their customers’) profitability and sustainability.

AL Circle: Can you please share examples of how DISA solutions help foundries reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions?

Dr Per Larsen: Green sand is fundamentally sustainable, particularly compared to processes like no-bake and resin moulding. After castings have been removed from the sand moulds, you can reuse your green sand to make more moulds just by adding water plus a very small amount of new sand and bentonite. We can also clean, regenerate and recycle any waste green sand using Simpson Technologies’ Pro-Claim sand reclamation equipment. Foundries can try recycling their own sand at our test foundry to cut waste to an absolute minimum. Compared to the permanent moulds used in die casting, tools used on DISA machines can have a lifetime up to 600,000 shots which massively reduces tooling waste.

AL Circle: Melting consumes the most energy in any aluminium casting process but sand preparation, mould handling and shakeout can all benefit from more efficient operations when using green sand. How do DISA’s solutions address the challenge of minimising energy use at these stages?

Dr Per Larsen: Per tonne produced, our vertical, flaskless moulding lines only consume around 20 per cent of the energy of traditional flask lines but our solutions’ main route to reducing energy use comes from producing consistently high quality castings. This avoids energy-intensive remelting of scrap and minimises the need for extra finishing work. For example, the DISA Mould Accuracy Controller (MAC) cuts scrap and fettling by monitoring moulds in real time to identify problems like mismatched mould halves or mould gaps, and alerts operators if required.

Our equipment also contains numerous built-in energy reduction features, such as the very efficient hydraulic pumps featured in the DISAMATIC D3 and D5. Another example is the new all-electric Automatic Mould Handling system for DISA MATCH moulding lines which replaces hydraulic power with state-of-the-art electric servo drives. This gives very precise and smooth control of mould transport while cutting overall operating costs through simpler maintenance, lower power consumption and no hydraulic oil.

As noted above, our digital solutions help drastically reduce scrap and other waste at all process stages to reduce scrap, remelting and so energy consumption, along with Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. For example, Spain’s Draxton optimised the sand/water ratio in its mixing by analysing its operating data, and so reduced energy and water consumption.

AL Circle: When companies are under pressure to cut costs, is technology investment often the first area to be deprioritised? Or do you see a shift in mindset where technology is increasingly viewed as a long-term cost reducer?

Dr Per Larsen: Our customers are happy to invest in our technology because they see a clear ROI benefit in the short to medium term. We can show them many installations where our machines have reliably and consistently produced high quality castings for many years yet required only minimum maintenance. Equipment like our Automatic Pattern Changers or Double Index System cut cycle times and increase productivity but it’s our Monitizer digital tools that are really transforming the foundry industry as long-term cost reducers; analysing data and applying the resulting insight is really the only way to keep improving year-on-year.

AL Circle: Asia-Pacific, especially China, Japan, and India are the leading countries for casting due to massive automotive/electronics demand and lower costs, followed by North America. How deeply has DISA penetrated these markets, and what is your strategy for expanding technology supplies across these regions?

Dr Per Larsen: DISA green sand moulding equipment and services are widely used by foundries across Asia Pacific, for example, by Morikawa in Japan and Huaxiang in China. We have a longstanding technology transfer strategy, with manufacturing facilities in both China and India where we produce the DISAMATIC C3 while selling and supporting our entire range as part of Norican Group. Expanding our footprint in APAC and elsewhere is greatly helped by the global Norican service network, along with our digital support services and Application Team of experts. Our customers know we are there for them 24/7.

AL Circle: Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, what new solutions or technological innovations can the industry expect from DISA?

Dr Per Larsen: We will always continue to innovate and refine our solutions, but our main focus in 2026 is to bring the huge quality and cost advantages of DISA green sand to more aluminium foundries and to other alloys like steel, brass and bronze. Our test foundry is busy helping multiple customers switch to green sand so, if you have an aluminium casting you would like to trial in green sand, get in touch!