December 2012 - american foundry society piedmont chapter

Piedmont AFS Chapter
www.afspiedmont.org
December 2012
Chairman
James Sturgeon
Conbraco Industries
P.O. Box 1076
Conway, SC 29528
Vice Chairman
Greg Southerland
Specialty Foundry Products, Inc.
Second Vice Chairman
Donald McLain
Charlotte Pipe & Foundry Co.
Secretary
David Simms
Dominion Metallurgical
5304 Valleypark Drive
Roanoke, VA 24019
Treasurer
Ryan LaCoursiere
Miller & Co.
1538 Twelfth Fairway Dr.
Concord, NC 28027-9705
Directors (Term Expires 2013)
Donald McLain
Charlotte Pipe & Foundry
Jeff Gallagher
Piedmont Foundry Supply, Inc.
Michael Looby
Inductotherm Corp.
Directors (Term Expires 2014)
Greg Hermeyer
HA International
Aaron Romeo
Primetrade Inc.
Bill Ruettgers
Southern Cast, Inc
Directors (Term Expires 2015)
Robbie Gallagher
Piedmont Foundry Supply, Inc.
Mike Hall
Charlotte Pipe & Foundry Co.
James Lewis
Coastal River Technologies
Shake Out Chairman
Shaun McGuirt/Bob Currie
Charlotte Pipe & Foundry
Membership Chairman
Michael Looby
Inductotherm Corp.
Education Chairman
James Sturgeon
Conbraco Industries
Registration Chairman
Jeff Gallagher
Piedmont Foundry Supply, Inc.
Publicity Chairman
Aaron Romeo
Primetrade, Inc.
Web Site Chairman
Aaron Romeo
Primetrade, Inc.
Past Chairman
Paul Hanna
Metaltech Systems
Greetings chapter members and friends! It’s hard to believe that 2012 is already
winding down but 2013 looks to be an exciting year for our chapter! There are
some great opportunities for you to get involved and several important events that
will help you to get 2013 off to a successful start.
First up is our next chapter meeting on January 23rd and 24th in Blacksburg, Virginia. Our Vice Chairman, Greg Southerland, has assembled a great seminar that will
highlight two programs. In the morning session we will have presentations on the
research and technical efforts of AFS at the national level. This will be an excellent
opportunity for you to learn more about the tools and resources that are available to
you just because you are a member of AFS. In the afternoon we will have a comprehensive update on the activities at VT Fire. There will be presentations from VT
staff, current and former students. The dinner meeting at Blacksburg will also be
Past Chairman’s Night. Please take a moment to look over the meeting notice to
see more detail on this meeting’s schedule. I’m confident that there is something
for everyone! In addition to the meeting we will have the opportunity to tour the VT
Fire facility. If you haven’t visited before it will be a real treat to see one of the best
metalcasting learning facilities anywhere.
The AFS Southeastern Regional Conference is just around the corner. The conference theme is Sustainability: Ingredients for Success and will be hosted by the
Piedmont Chapter in beautiful Savannah, Georgia on February 20th-22nd. Mark
your calendar now! The Regional will include a fundraiser golf event on Wednesday February 20th at the Savannah Harbor Golf Club. The technical sessions on
Thursday February 21st will include many outstanding speakers. The Regional will
conclude on Friday February 22nd with a tour of the Gulfstream Aviation Jet Assembly Facility. Registration information is coming soon to the Piedmont Chapter website (www.afspiedmont.org).
See you in Blacksburg!
James Sturgeon
AFS Piedmont Chapter Chairman
Piedmont Chapter Education Report
December 2012
“Progress through Education”
By: Paul Huffman
For those of you who are unfamiliar with or have not experienced the most important educational endeavor our Chapter has undertaken, you
have a wonderful opportunity at our January Piedmont meeting. This program will be held in Blacksburg, Va. adjacent to the Va Tech campus and will feature current and past Material Science and Engineering Students, Staff and our VT FIRE professor Dr. Alan Druschitz, as
well as Mr. Steve Robinson of AFS National. We will also be touring the Kroehling Advanced Materials Laboratory, home of VT
FIRE and holding our initial FEF Advisory Board meeting.
In addition, if your company may have an interest in using Engineering Student Interns next summer, this will be an excellent venue to
explore this opportunity and meet some of the brightest metal casting students in the industry. We hope to see you in Blacksburg!
VT FIRE Update
The fall semester is wrapping up and the foundry is cooling down. Twenty-one students used 13,000 lbs. of sand this semester making nobake molds for heats in aluminum, bronze, steel, gray iron and ductile iron alloys. After two years of use we finally need to replace our original alumina crucible in our tilt induction melting furnace.
Three metal casting related Senior Design Projects started this semester and will continue throughout this academic year. The projects are
conducting undergraduate research in 3D Mold Printing, Expendable Polymers for Investment Casting Patterns and Stream inoculation of
Ductile Iron. We expect four additional metal casting related research projects to begin next semester in the areas of Steel Melting, Ductile
Iron Casting, Heat Treating of Steel and Aluminum Alloy Corrosion.
The number of students interested in summer internships is growing and our Chapter plans to assist this process to place everyone who is
interested. We currently have interest from Newport News Shipbuilding Foundry and Grede Radford, who just hired two interns for the
holiday break.
I would also like to take this opportunity to recognize Dr. Druschitz’ s son, Ed Druschitz, who just completed his PhD at UAB and has
excepted a position as Metallurgist for Nucor-Birmingham, Birmingham, AL.
Senior Design students pouring aluminum
Foundry Education Foundation
As we reported in our last newsletter our VT FIRE program has been granted full “Certified” status with FEF. We are now one of 18 certified colleges and universities in North America. Last month Dr. Druschitz and four VT FIRE students attended the 2012 FEF College Industry Conference. At this conference two of our student delegates, Mary Seals and Shawn McKinney were awarded two of the twenty
CIC scholarships. This was a tremendous accomplishment for a newly certified program.
Dr. Alan Druschitz with VA Tech’s 2012 CIC delegates (from left) Shawn McKinney, Mary Seals, Patrick Stockhausen and Ruthie Kay
Material Science and Engineering
On November 15 and 16, 2102 the MSE Industrial Advisory Board held its annual meeting on the campus of Va Tech. During this two
day session we discussed the current status and brainstormed the future of the Undergraduate and Graduate programs. There are many exciting developments in the works for this engineering department. Our undergraduate enrollment has grown over 18% in just one year. Currently we have 130 undergraduates (sophomore through senior) and 59 graduate students enrolled in the MSE department. 12% of our undergraduate enrollment are honors students. We currently employ 14 tenure track full time equivalent professors and 29 adjunct or affiliated
faculty. During this working session each Board member was given a gray iron Hokie Bird cast at VT FIRE.
MSE Department Head, Dr. David Clark, presents a VT FIRE cast Hokie Bird to each member of the MSE Industrial Advisory Board. In
attendance is Paul Huffman, your Piedmont Education Chairman
Calling All Hands on Deck!!!!!!!
If you are a new member of the AFS Piedmont Chapter, or you are a long time member looking for a cause to volunteer
your time towards, then you are most welcome to let your interests be known!
Please don’t be shy or worse yet assume that you don’t have the skills or the time to do any volunteer SERVICE for your
Chapter.
Make contact with any of your Chapter Officers or Directors listed on the front cover page of this newsletter and let us
know you are interested in stepping forward! It doesn’t take a lot of time, and it usually doesn’t cost anything. This
would even be a great way to participate in the activities of your Chapter even if you are unable to attend the scheduled
meetings throughout the year.
We have a multitude of activities this year and we are not ashamed to ask for HELP. We are hosting the Southeast Regional Conference, we have meeting arrangements to be cared for, we have a mission of Member Outreach to accomplish, etc. With the use of modern technologies, anyone can participate no matter where you are!
“Volunteering” is much better than being “Assigned” to do something. It is much more rewarding!
DON’T SIT ON THE SIDELINES – BE AN ACTIVE CHAPTER MEMBER!!!!!
PIEDMONT CHAPTER MEMBERSHIP
NEW MEMBERS WANTED:
We welcome new members both corporate and individual. I ask our current members to try their best to recruit new
members as it is beneficial to both them and the Piedmont Chapter.
Your membership is very important to all of us at the AFS Piedmont Chapter. We kindly ask for your support to the
American Foundry Society by becoming a member. There are a number of membership benefits which include:

Subscription to MODERN CASTING magazine (completion of requalification form required).

Subscription to Member Connections, the AFS Newsletter (print version).

Email delivery of E-Connections newsletter.

Email delivery of Education Connections newsletter.

Career development through discounts on Cast Metals Institute courses and distance learning.
Membership in the local AFS Piedont Chapter with access to chapter meetings, and regional networking resources.

Ability to join AFS Technical committees and influence technology transfer through industry.

Access to the web-based AFS library with discounts on more than 39,200 abstracts.

Industry knowledge through discounts on AFS publications (books, research reports, transactions) and AFS Conferences.
The AFS Personal Membership Registration Form is on the following page.
For any other questions regarding AFS Piedmont Chapter Membership please contact:
Michael Looby
Membership Chairman & Director
609.257.7544 Cell
[email protected]
MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW
TO MAKE THESE 2013 CHAPTER MEETINGS
March 14 & 15, 2012
January 23rd - 24th: Blacksburg, VA
Holiday Inn University
900 Prices Fork Road
nd
February 20th-22
: Southeast
Regional in Savannah, GA
Blacksburg,
VA 24060
May 16th-17th : MAY OUTING : Waynesville, NC
Shakeout Newsletter
Please send announcements, news about members, committee reports, or any items of interest for the
Shakeout to:
Shaun McGuirt
Charlotte Pipe & Foundry Co.
P.O. Box 35430
Charlotte, NC 28235
E-mail: [email protected]
Deadline for Articles in the next ShakeOut: January 1, 2013