SFSA Casteel Reporter – April 2025

Cast in Steel 2025 Competition

The 7th Annual Cast in Steel Competition was truly an event for the ages!

Held on Thursday, April 10th, and Friday, April 11th, with a grand awards ceremony on Saturday afternoon at CastExpo in downtown Atlanta, this year’s competition was bigger, bolder, and more thrilling than ever—because we turned it into a TV series!

Teams stepped into the spotlight to put their blades to the ultimate test, facing off against grueling challenges and the sharp-eyed scrutiny of our expert judges. Each sword endured intense, hands-on testing, pushing the limits of craftsmanship, creativity, and performance. The result? A competition that brought out the absolute best in every student.

This year’s epic showdown featured 39 teams from 29 universities, each guided by one of 33 incredible industry mentors. With nearly 300 students participating and a crowd of enthusiastic guests cheering them on, the energy was electric from start to finish.

Steel, skill, and spirit collided in a one-of-a-kind celebration of engineering excellence.

The Grand Prize was based on the top 5 rankings below.  Weighting of the scores were as follows: (1) Design and Process 25%, (2) Spear Authenticity 15%, (3) Casting 25%, (4) Video 10%, and (5)

As in previous years, SFSA will donate all George Washington Swords, except the Grand Prize Winner, to FEF for auction. Stay tuned for auction details, which will be announced by FEF soon!

Casting Dreams

The Casting Dreams National Competition was held at the CastExpo on Monday, April 14th in downtown Atlanta!

This year, the competition saw incredible participation, with over 500 students ages 14-18 representing 31 organizations and schools from across the country. The level of talent on display was nothing short of inspiring—our judges were blown away by the creativity each student brought to the table.

From more than 500 initial castings, judges narrowed the field to 12 outstanding finalists who competed in the National Competition. These young students showcased the future of metal casting with their skills.

Casting Dreams continues to ignite excitement in the next generation of casting talent.

The Casting Dreams Winners

Radiographic Testing (RT) Standards

SFSA members and customers have commonly used ASTM E94 in conjunction with reference radiographs for non-destructive testing (NDT) of steel castings for many, many decades.  ASTM currently designates E94 as a guide, which means it provides methods but not requirements.  ASTM E1030 is a test method for radiography of castings, which does reference E94.  At this time, no written requirements on the use of a “guide” versus “test method” (especially when it pertains to a test) within ASTM have been identified.  This topic will be discussed at the upcoming ASTM A01 meeting.  The Specification Committee will meet on May 6th in Toronto, Canada.  For more information, please contact Dave.

79th Technical & Operating Conference

The T&O Committee met in April to review plans for this year’s conference.  The conference and workshop will be December 10-13 at the Loews Hotel in Chicago.  If you would like to recommend a topic and presenter, please contact Dave.

Research Review, July 8-10

Please make your plans to participate in the annual SFSA Research Review on July 8-10. This year’s meeting will be held in-person in Rosemont, IL. The Review covers the latest in both Carbon & Low Alloy and High Alloy steel casting research under the AMC and STAR programs. The meeting is also your opportunity to interact with the researchers and provide industry steering. The event vets our research portfolio to select the R&D projects to be featured at the National T&O. More details regarding registration and the Design Day are to come. For any questions, contact Caelan Kennedy (ckennedy@sfsa.org).

Registration is required and must be completed by June 23: https://sfsa.site-ym.com/event/ResearchReview2025. The hotel reservation cutoff is June 17.

Hotel Information
Embassy Suites by Hilton Chicago O’Hare Rosemont

5500 North River Road

Rosemont, IL 60018

Group Rate:                     $172.00/night
Reservation cutoff date: June 17, 2025
Reservations by phone: 1-800-315-1061 Group Code:  SFS

Online Reservation:  Online Reservation

Jim and Betsy Cooke Scholarship

SFSA announced a drive to support a scholarship in the name of a valued couple of our industry. Jim Cooke was a valued and respected member of the Steel Founders Society of America (SFSA) and our industry. Alongside his wife, Betsy, Jim was a dear friend to many, making lasting contributions to both our community and our field.

Jim’s dedication to SFSA was evident in his roles as both a member and chairman of the Marketing Committee, as well as his service on the SFSA Board of Directors. His insightful paper on metal losses in steel casting processes, presented at the 2006 T&O Conference, was a pivotal contribution to the industry and was published in Modern Castings in 2007. His work has had a lasting impact—many foundries continue to use his data on in-process metal loss for their metal surcharges to this day. Additionally, Jim was honored with the 2006 Frank Lorenz Medal for his contributions to the field.

Our goal for this effort is $50,000 and we had a good start of over $20,000.  Contributions can securely be made here https://secure.affinipay.com/pages/steel-founders-society-of-america/foundation. Or a check payable to: “Steel Founders’ Society Foundation” indicating the Jim and Betsy Cooke scholarship designation can be mailed to 780 McArdle Drive, Unit G, Crystal Lake, IL 60014.

Christoph Beckermann

In other sad news, Christoph, a dear friend and invaluable contributor to SFSA passed away this month on April 9.  The details are available from:

https://www.lensingfuneral.com/obituaries/Christoph-Beckermann?obId=41998083

Christoph was the most prolific contributor to the SFSA T&O with more papers by far than anyone else.  He will be cited and remembered as long as we make steel castings.

SFSA Foundation Scholarships

Recruiting and developing the next generation of leaders is a top priority for the steel casting industry. As part of a strategic initiative by the Steel Founders’ Society of America (SFSA), the Foundation remains committed to investing in the industry’s future by encouraging member companies to hire student interns and by recognizing the valuable contributions these interns make.

Through the Steel Founders’ Society Foundation, we are proud to offer $2,000 scholarships to student interns who have worked at an SFSA member foundry during 2025. These scholarships aim to honor students for their meaningful contributions and to inspire their continued growth within the steel casting industry.

Scholarship Opportunities

• The Schumo Scholarship
  • Established in memory of Robert M. Schumo, former president of SFSA and Pennsylvania Electric Steel. This scholarship recognizes his generous contribution that helped establish the Foundation.
• The Peaslee Scholarship
  • Created by the SFSA Board in honor of the late Dr. Kent Peaslee, Chair of Steelmaking Technology and Curators’ Teaching Professor of Metallurgical Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology.
    To be eligible, the student’s project must focus on melting or refining processes.

Two Additional Scholarships in 2025

• Jim and Betsy Cooke Memorial Scholarship Fund
• Christoph Beckermann Memorial Scholarship Fund
  
  

Scholarship Criteria

To be considered, interns must:

• Have worked at an SFSA member foundry during 2025
• Be responsible for a defined project (not used for an extra set of hands)
• For the Peaslee Scholarship, the project must focus on melting or refining
• Submit a written paper and PowerPoint presentation detailing their completed project

All submissions will be evaluated by the SFSA Scholarship Selection Committee, composed of experienced professionals who have served in both technical and operational roles and who have served within other SFSA committees.

Recognition at the 2025 National T&O Conference

Scholarship recipients will be recognized at the 2025 SFSA National Technical & Operating Conference, held in Chicago on Friday, December 25, 2025. Each scholarship winner will be expected to present their project during the event.

Submission Details

To apply, each intern must:

1. Submit a paper and PowerPoint presentation on the project they have completed during their employment.
2. Ensure both are reviewed and approved by their supervisor before submission
3. Send materials to Renee Mueller at rmueller@sfsa.org by August 15, 2025

For questions, please contact: Renee Mueller at  rmueller@sfsa.org or 847-431-5405.

Casteel Commentary

Cast in Steel

Steel Casting producers know that the future depends on the young people that join our industry.  SFSA has been active for over 8 years with Cast in Steel to reach out to university students.  Cast in Steel is like a video game.  We do not ask students if they are interested in learning steel casting technology because we are an important industry and would be a creative and good career.  We ask if they would like to make a Viking axe as a casting for a challenging competition. 

The students who form teams to compete are self-selected.  We did not do interviews or personal evaluations of the students to pick likely prospects.  The teams form from young people who want to make and compete by making their axe as a casting.  Like a game, they know the final stage they need to get to but are uncertain of what the path to success looks like. 

They ask questions like what is required for the cast axe to qualify.  The response is that they need to do the research and justify why their design and item is a Viking axe.  They need to design their casting, so they need to know how to create a solid model.  So, they need to learn how to solid model their design.  Then they need to decide how to cast it.  We require an industrial partner that can help but their help or advice is not required, the team needs to use them as a key resource.  A university faculty person is required but also has no required role.  The team is responsible to do the work of design and manufacture.  They need to choose the process, material, produce the casting, heat treat, finish, assemble and test it.

The requirements are open ended and the teams must learn and be creative to make the axe.  They need to explain their project in technical report, capture it in video, make it as the required axe using casting to add value and remain authentic.  Finally, it must pass a series of performance tests that are critical with judges who are world class experts.

In talking with the student teams this year after the competition and asking them about the competition, they routinely related that their original interest was in being able to be in the competition but that the value was in learning how to make their casting.  They would say that this competition was the richest learning experience they had in their time at college.  They would insist that learning how to make the casting and overcoming their setbacks and overcoming unexpected challenges was thrilling.  They would emphasize the creativity and joy in persevering to success.  This allowed me to teel them that we who make steel castings get to do this every day.

The students’ excitement and involvement made the film crew and DoD sponsors thrilled to capture this for our production.  This is hoped to be a major way we can help change the culture but especially to help these young people find a calling in life that they enjoy and contribute.

One observation from my oldest grandson who is supporting our social media outreach and came to the competition caused me to change my rhetoric but not my message.  I know we need these young people and that they would find that we are making things that are important in a community that cares.  But if I ask them to join us because we need them, it sounds like a senior businessman recruiting to fill a job.

Thinking through, how can I shift the focus from our need to their interest?

My approach was to begin with the assertion, you were made to do something important.  It is your responsibility to find the best way for you to contribute to the people in our neighborhood, state, nation and world.  Your purpose is to make a difference, we are all supposed to.  You know from this competition that our community making steel castings is doing something important that is needed and needs people like you.  You need to find your purpose and we want to help you explore whether what you can do fits with us.  We need your creativity, energy, ability and effort to do our part in the world.

This is what I think we all want, and this message seemed to resonate with them.

This year’s competition brought together an impressive 39 teams from 29 universities, all mentored by 33 dedicated industry partners, to take on the challenge of casting George Washington’s Sword. Nearly 300 students participated, with over 100 guests joining across both the competition and the awards ceremony.

 Casting Dreams

Casting Dreams started two years ago to introduce pre-college kids to our industry.  If we want to find our artisans to make the castings and change the image of what we do, we need this effort.  The cultural perception is that making castings is boring, dangerous, de-humanizing.  We know that it is high tech, vital, creative and fulfilling.

This year we had over 500 participants with 31 organizations and schools.  Our goal is to dramatically grow.  We are collaborating with a host of organizations: FEF, AFS, NFFS, ICI, METAL, ASM, SME, SkillsUSA, etc.  Our goal is to have an impact and we need our members to help in sponsoring and supporting this effort.

Testimonials from parents, teachers and hosts

“We are incredibly excited that Jake has won this award! It’s wonderful to see him recognized for doing what he loves. He dedicated hours at home to designing this helmet that fits our Golden Retriever, Flint. When he came home with the award and the check, he was thrilled. The award is already framed and displayed on the wall.”

“He is very excited, and this will probably be one of the best experiences he has had in high school, so thank you again for putting this on.”

“The children displayed enthusiasm while participating, showing a strong interest in casting, with many admitting they were previously unfamiliar with the concept.”“I just wanted to reach out and say thank you again for allowing us to be a part of this contest and go to the Casting Expo. The students (and me) had a great time. They have already been talking it up among their classmates and teachers this morning. I met so many great companies, trade organizations, and people there. I believe this is going to really boost our schools program and give me some more freedom to add more casting into my curriculum and afterschool program.”

Raymond