. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . inDustry neWs
Virginia Tech Building Casting Center Contractors began con-
struction of Virginia Tech’s Foundry Institute for Research and Education (VT-FIRE) on March 29.
According to Robert Hen-
dricks, professor and associate head of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Virginia Tech and director of the VT-FIRE project, equip- ment will begin to be installed in the new metalcasting facility on Aug. 29. Completion of the building is scheduled for Sept. 29, and classes will begin dur- ing the Spring 2011 semester. “Our goal is for this to be
Ground was broken on the new VT-FIRE facility on March 29.
the premier [casting facility] at a U.S. university,” Hendricks said. Several years ago, funding for VT-
FIRE was sought but not obtained. Now, about $1.6 million in cash, equipment and in-kind donations have been secured.
“The original [fundraising] strategy
was to go and ask for a lot of money,” Hendricks said. “But we didn’t have to have all the money in hand. We just needed the long-term pledges, and we could obtain a mortgage.” Hendricks said more equipment
must be purchased—he is taking bids for a furnace— and more funds must be raised. But by the end of the year, VT-FIRE should be a fully functional met- alcasting facility capable of melting 300 lbs. of iron or steel and pouring castings in the green sand, nobake and investment casting processes. In conjunction with the completion of the center, Virginia Tech has created a minor in metalcasting engi- neering. Some of the funding for the project also will be
used as scholarship money. “Especially in these bad economic
times, it’s remarkable we were success- ful in raising this money,” Hendricks said. “What [these groups] donated was the ability to develop an undergraduate metalcasting program.”
METAL
May/June 2010
For Design engineers & PurChasers
13
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