12th Annual ICI Casting Design Contest

The Investment Casting Institute is a trade association with over 230 member companies, with a mission to promote the investment casting process, and to collect and disseminate information about the industry and providing education opportunities to members.

Among other programs it administers, each year ICI conducts a design contest that highlights investment casting applications, process capabilities, and the important advantages of the design to the customer.

At its 60^th Annual Technical Conference and Expo in Pittsburgh, October 6-9, ICI presented the winning investment casting designs in the latest contest.  Four investment casting foundries took the top honors in this 12th annual casting contest, designated for designs that serve aerospace, automotive, industrial, and military markets.

Six more castings were recognized for their design innovation, too.

ICI executive director Michael Perry said the contest demonstrates the strengths of the investment casting process, and the benefits to the producers as well as their customers.

“Each year of the contest we see how investment casters are manufacturing increasingly complex castings, and creatively solving problems both in their process and for the customer,” Perry noted. “Each internal passage, intricate coring detail, thin wall, and each difficult design element represents an advantage of the investment casting process and a potential a problem solved for the customer.

“The use of investment casting can often result in total cost savings, because of reduced machining and finishing, combining part details into a one- piece casting, or improving surface finish,” Perry continued.

The casting contest is open to members of the Investment Casting Institute, and recognizes foundries that manufacture components that demonstrate and promote the benefits and flexibility of the investment casting process, or which demonstrate problem solving techniques for the customer.