ALCHIMIA Project: The Artificial Intelligence Accelerating Fonderia di Torbole’s Green and Digital Transition

The efficient use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become essential to successfully tackling the dual challenge of green and digital transformation in heavy industry. AI is emerging as one of the strategic assets for companies like ours, determined to remain competitive in a production landscape increasingly focused on sustainability, innovation, and resource optimization.

The intelligent use of data and predictive models enables us to optimize energy consumption, improve material usage, and manage production waste more effectively.

This is the context in which Alchimia comes into play – an advanced system that will soon be implemented at our foundry, initially to validate the model, and later to optimize it further. Applied to the casting iron process, Alchimia will deliver crucial data to significantly reduce scrap rates, turning what was once a theoretical approach into a real, measurable, and directly applicable production advantage.

In a sector traditionally classified as hard to abate – that is, difficult to decarbonize-the adoption of Alchimia marks a true paradigm shift. Its strength lies in a holistic modeling of the entire production process: an approach that integrates all variables-energy consumption, raw materials, emissions, final product quality, production times, and overall environmental impact.

Alchimia combines machine learning algorithms, first-principle physics models, and hybrid approaches, creating an intelligent ecosystem capable of providing strategic data to enhance the performance of the entire production cycle. In our specific case, the system not only optimizes resource usage and reduces waste, but also ensures product compliance with customer standards-while helping to lower costs and environmental footprint.

Key measurable benefits include:

• Scrap reduction: Over 10% decrease thanks to more precise control of the melting process
• Cost optimization: Less scrap means less waste and higher efficiency, directly boosting competitiveness
• Energy and CO₂ emission savings: Estimated reduction of more than 3%, contributing tangibly to a low-carbon economy

In addition, Alchimia’s continuous learning models dynamically adapt to real-time data-such as metal temperature and composition-progressively improving system performance.

Looking ahead

The adoption of Alchimia at Fonderia di Torbole demonstrates its strategic value: not only does it enhance the quality of brake disc production, but it also strengthens the company’s position as an innovative player in the global metallurgy landscape.

And this is just the beginning. The potential applications of the Alchimia system extend well beyond the cast iron sector, opening up new horizons of innovation in still-untapped industrial areas. An AI that not only predicts-but acts, adapts, and transforms. And with every data point it processes, it drives the industry one step closer to a sustainable future.