2017 Inductees
HALL OF HONOR R.S. Banister
Frank Valenta After emigrating from
Austria,
Valenta founded Cercast in Montreal in 1959. He also founded Shell-O-Matic and Vestshell. His company became a leader in the development of the aluminum castings, always pushing the technical envelope in innovation. He held licensees in England and Japan and expanded his company into Canada, the USA, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, before he sold it to Howmet in 1988. Friend and colleague Henri Fine, president of Uni-Cast, said Valenta trained and mentored many
people
who hold him in high esteem. “He was a pioneer that helped move
the industry by leaps and bounds in the 70s and 80s,” Fine said. “He dramatically increased the size, complexity and met- allurgical quality of aluminum castings. He also developed automation and pro- cesses to improve productivity and the reliability of production.” Valenta was aggressive in improving
technology and worked on developing a shell system as early as 1962. Through the years, he refined his ethyl silica- based shell system to create perhaps the best shell system for aluminum castings at
Robert Andrew Horton Robert Horton credits “dumb luck” with placing him in a pioneering position in the investment casting industry. Among an elite few who have been in the industry since 1949, Horton has led the way for research and development in shell, wax and metals. His night college required engineer-
ing students to have a job in technolo- gy during the day, which put him in the right place to make his mark on the in- dustry he came to love. “I had a lot of years of schooling I still had to do, and investment casting was new enough that you could make contributions,” he said. Horton worked directly with a prominent ceramicist at Austenal on two major projects: a new, better investment for metal, and ceramic shells. He reasoned that since metals were the product, and the process couldn’t operate without waxes, he needed to know more about these areas. After moving to Precision
the time. And in an effort to get more consistent results on large parts, Valenta decided to develop a robot for shell dipping which he developed with partner, George Muri. A true pioneer who helped to de-
velop the industry by leaps and bounds, his achievements are not simply a piece of history, they remain relevant today. Frank Valenta passed away in Switzer- land on his 91st birthday.
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Metalsmiths, Inc. (PMI), he discovered ways to use polystyrene patterns in ceramic shell. “That was a wonderful thing and highly appreciated …and we let people know we were the only ones that could do this.” Horton has been on every major development in investment casting except directional solidification and titanium. He is still active at PMI and continues to leave his mark on the industry, but his 39 patents are the greatest evidence of his contributions.
Kenneth M. Bartlett L.E. Brooks James Byrne
Walter A. Dubovick R. Greenbaum R.D. Gumbert Ken Harris Hank Harvey
Meacham Hitchcock Robert Andrew Horton James D. Jackson V.S. Lazzara
Theodore Operhall E.H. Parris Y. Pessel
Bruce S. Phipps S. Preston
S.J. Sindeband K.W. Thompson Frank Valenta R. Waindle C.H. Watts A.C. Williams J. Yates
K.J. Yonker
Jack Ziemba Z.N. Zirn
November 2017 ❘ 11
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