SFSA Technical Support

SFSA offers free technical support for members.  SFSA helps solve problems for steel foundries – leveraging  decades of steel casting expertise by the SFSA staff along with the world’s best experts in academia and industry.  In addition, SFSA promotes industry collaboration by issuing member surveys upon request by members to solicit input on a specific topic.  Survey results are anonymized and issued to all participants, offering a great way to leverage the steel foundry community to develop best practices or to direct research opportunities.

CTA Consultants

Steel casting producers sometime find it beneficial to hire outside resources to solve problems or to manage projects. SFSA is interested in making sure those resources, especially knowledgeable consultants and retirees, are available to members. For more than 30 years, SFSA has maintained a list of consultants and retirees that are capable in steel casting technical and operating areas. CTA, Casteel Technology Associates, was formed by SFSA to maintain a list of qualified consultants interested in working with members. Members routinely call and discuss their needs and ask for recommendations. The current list of CTA consultants is as follows:

Hal Davis

42 years experience in steel foundry technology, including technical and procedural management of melting, heat treating, and welding. Materials include carbon, low alloy, stainless, and manganese steel.

BS in metallurgical engineering, Missouri S&T (then University of Missouri Rolla, UMR)

Jobs included were plant metallurgist, Tech. Services Manager, and VP Technology at Sivyer Steel Corp., Product & Technical Director, Military and Locomotive Division, ABC-NACO Inc.

Email: halmachine@hotmail.com
Telephone: (563) 340-2315

Shelly Dutler – KE Collab

Parsing the science of metal casting into applied foundry solutions
Designing castings and rigging systems for optimized castability and machining
Analyzing defect root causes and developing action plans
Assessing skills gaps and providing recommendations for development

Shelly leverages over twenty-five years of experience in casting design and production to collaborate with metal casting design, sourcing and production teams in developing data-driven action plans that improve efficiency and scrap rates and instill effective communication techniques to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

She has held positions in casting and tooling design, casting process simulation, and metal casting workforce development at John Deere, Magma Foundry Technologies, Inc. and American Foundry Society Institute. She earned a Master’s in Materials Science and Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology studying chemical and mechanical ferrous metallurgy and performed research on high temperature mechanical tensile and creep properties of a martensitic stainless steel alloy. Shelly also holds a B.S. in Manufacturing Technology from University of Northern Iowa’s Foundry Educational Foundation accredited metal casting program. Her research in thermophysical properties of alloys and molding materials has been published in Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A and American Foundry Society Transactions.

For more information: kecollab.com
Email: shelly@kecollab.com
Telephone: (847) 906-8213

George Hartay

All Steel Foundry Technical and Management, Sand Practice and Handling Systems, Full production of steel castings; from engineering through all phases of production, to shipment of rough casting or finish machined part.

Foundry Technical and Management – 40 years experience, Technical Director. Extensive Technical experience producing steel castings; 250lbs. to 110,000lbs. shipping weight. 60% captive, 40% jobbing. Carbon and low alloy steel grades plus HY80. 2 years special projects, 5 years foundry engineering, 8 years technical management, 25 years Technical Director. Management of Foundry Engineering, Pattern Shop, Melting, Metallurgy, Production Control, Scheduling, Sand and Mechanical Test Labs, Foundry Purchasing, ISO 9001 compliance, extensive interaction with machining castings in-house and customers.

Full implementation of MAGMA into foundry engineering processes. First steel foundry to implement shroud pouring into daily operations, 45 to 55% of monthly tonnage.

Knowledge of all NDT Processes, MPI (wet and Dry) UT, X-Ray. Experienced in analyzing defects, root cause analysis and eliminating cause of defect by modifying manufacturing processes and/or updating procedures and work instructions.

Email: gahartay@wi.rr.com
Telephone: (414) 828-3411

Ken Murphy

Creative problem solver. Emphasis on safety. Interested in centrifugal, sand and precision casting production. Experienced in gray, compacted graphite, alloy and ductile irons, low and high alloy steels, super alloys, high manganese and ultra-high strength steels. Market experience includes mining, scrap processing, rail, food, paper mill, chemical, oil & gas, rubber processing, steel mill, structural, hydraulic, power, defense, construction and water.

Developed high strength steel for pipe molds. Innovated creative methods for centrifugal casting and weld fabrication. Designed facilities for custom heat treatment of pipe molds and warheads.

Engineering experience in Steel Foundry, Cupola Melting, and Ductile Iron Pipe production operations at all levels.

Management experience focused on as-cast and machined steel casting production with customer interaction.
Numerous technical papers and presentations.

Metallurgical Engineering Degree – University of Alabama.

Presented Foundry-in-a Box to over 23,000 students.

Casting experience began in 1971. Still enjoying it.

Email: kenmurphy.fe@gmail.com
Telephone: (205) 965-4225

Shrirang Kulkarni

43 years of experience in all aspects of Steel casting industry- Technology,Operations and Sales.
Have experience in Melting,Sand Technology,Foundry Engineering,Heat treatment,inspection and finishing.
Have managed 2 plants with bottom line P&L responsibility
Have worked as a Chief Technology officer(CTO) for a group of 10 foundries in US,Canada,Mexico,UK and India to establish best practices,scrap and rework reduction,problem solving and continuous improvement .

Specialities: Passionate about training teams for continuous improvement and problem solving with Six Sigma and Shanin methodology.
Scrap and rework reduction.
Efficiency and cost improvement to help bottom line P&L statement.
Training technical and operations teams for all foundry processes in different countries and cultures.
Jobs Held: Technical Director, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for a group of ABC-NACO Foundries.
President of Richmond Foundry in Houston and President of Acerlan Foundry in Mexico for Matrix Metals.
Education: B.S. in Metallurgy-University of Pune,India.
M.S. in Metallurgy – Missouri S&T(Then University of Missouri Rolla-UMR)

Email: shrirangkulkarni4@gmail.com
Phone: (281) 731-9095

Jorge D. Okhuysen

Jorge specializes in investment casting, foundry process development, product development, and the conversion of components from conventional sand casting to large investment casting for increased quality.

His experience includes sales engineering, pattern and tooling development, ceramic shell and molding processes, first-article development, process troubleshooting and optimization, vacuum induction Melting (VIM), ceramic core manufacturing technology, plant start-up and expansion, and technical support for casting applications. He is also experienced in developing practical solutions for difficult or unusual castings, including huge investment-castings manufacturing.

Jorge has more than four decades of foundry and manufacturing experience in Mexico and the United States. His career has included positions with Corporación POK, Texas Precision Metalcraft, Attwood/Fansteel, Engineered Metal Products, Coast Cast Corporation, and POK/Nucor. His responsibilities have ranged from pattern making, sand molding and metallurgical laboratory work to process and product engineering, technical sales, investment-casting operations management, plant start-up, and plant expansion. He has visited foundries throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, and the Middle East, conducted courses on investment casting, spoken at SFSA, and participated extensively in AFS and ICI technical seminars and industry events. He is also the inventor of several patented foundry processes and equipment concepts, like the Sugar Investment casting, solid media investment casting as well as the cyclops ladle.

Email: Jorgeokr@gmail.com
Phone: +52 1 333 954-8413

Paul Rudd – Problem Solving and Foundry Improvement

Specific areas in which I work are: casting quality improvement, performance and cost improvement, I have considerable experience in foundry engineering, foundry expansions, melting and metallurgy, heat treating, molding and finishing.

I also have worked hard to improve safety systems involving hourly workers with good results.

Email: psrudd46@gmail.com
Telephone: (972) 400-7765

Sam Sahu – Creative Technical Solutions – Physical Metallurgy, Heat Treatment, Sand Casting

Over 40 years of foundry experience – currently engaged in alloy development and general consulting. BS, MS, and PhD in Metallurgical Engineering.

For more information: Creative Technical Solutions
Email: sudharisahu@gmail.com
Telephone: (414) 614-1615

Jiten Shah – Product Development & Analysis (PDA) LLC – Product Development, Prototyping, Analysis

Casting design, fatigue and fracture mechanics, casting requirements generation, NDT, rigging design, simulation, contract research, reverse engineering, redesign, problem solving.

Hands on casting design(CAE-CAD, FEA and CFD), rigging and process design, development and casting process simulation of filling, solidification and residual stress/distortion/hot tearing for various alloys, processes and complexity for any new products, reverse engineering and redesign in the transportation, mining, power generation, process, healthcare, general industries and defense for over 30 years. has managed and participated on various contract research funded by DOD, DOE, NSAS and SOCOM related casting design and manufacturing; new alloy and process development including 3D printing, light weight innovations, digital manufacturing and design innovations. has published numerous technical papers at various professional societies including SFSA. Has MS in Mechanical and Aerospace from USC-Los Angeles/IIT-Chicago and M.Tech in Foundry Technology from IIT-India.

For more information: http://www.pda-llc.com/
Email: info@pda-llc.com
Telephone: (630) 505-8801

Jeff Slaughter

Focused process improvement while working together as a team. Safe work practices are a cornerstone of working together. Interested in centrifugal, green sand and chemically bonded sand casting production. Experience with grey iron, alloy irons, ductile irons, low and high alloy steels, super alloys, and ultra-high strength steels.  Experienced in producing cast products used in mining, scrap processing, paper production, chemical processing, steel mill rolls and guides, hydraulic cylinders, defense, heat treatment furnace components, cement kiln components and water/wastewater systems.

Extensive experience with induction melting, casting, and heat treatment of carbon steel, high strength steel, tool steels, high alloy steels, nickel-base alloys, and cobalt-base alloys. Directed heat treatment and processing of static castings, pipe molds and warheads to achieve optimum properties for longevity in demanding service conditions.

Engineering experience in gating configuration with riser(feeder) sizing, selection, placement, and design for steel and iron castings to produce quality castings with improved yields and reduced process welding and cleaning costs.

Metallurgical Engineering Degree – University of Alabama. Certified Senior Corrosion Technologist and Senior Internal Corrosion Technologist by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers.

Email: cjeffslau@gmail.com