SFSA Casteel Reporter – October 2026

80th T&O Workshop and Conference

Supported by steel foundry members that make up the Society, the T&O conference is the premiere steel casting event in the world.  The 80th conference will continue the legacy of technical and operating topics of today that will provide value to the industry for many years to come.  This year will feature a special workshop on sand control Wednesday morning including:  an overview of molding media, binder systems, and additives; green sand testing, no-bake testing, and sand reclamation.  The afternoon workshop scheduled topics:  fundamentals of metal penetration, Industry 4.0 NDT technology “shark tank”, and microstructural effect from liquid to solid transformations in carbon steel.  The conference program will cover the full range of technical and operating topics including Next Gen Manufacturing, molding, melting, foundry engineering, finishing quality, EHS, management, and a range of technical subjects.  For assistance with registration, please contact Renee.

Specification Committee

SFSA is actively involved in American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC), and American Welding Standard (AWS).  The specification bodies foster collaborative development of commercial standards, which SFSA will work with to transition technologies into new or existing standards.  These efforts are led by our Specification Committee, which will meet on November 3rd in Jacksonville, FL.  For more information, please contact Dave.

Additional Keel Bars Needed

To support the development of the SFSA carbon & low alloy atlas, we are looking for additional standard keel block legs:

• 1040, 1045, and 8630

SFSA is developing a carbon & low alloy atlas to show the effect of alloying elements and heat treating on the mechanical properties and microstructure of low alloy steels. As-cast and bars from the same heat would be preferred. If at least 10 bars from the same heat can be poured that is much preferred.  Heat chemistry or mechanicals would be appreciated but are not required.  Please contact Jared ([email protected]) for shipping details.

Castings with RT Quality details Needed

SFSA is working with Georgia Southern to develop Phased Array Ultrasonic (PAUT) inspection of castings. To evaluate PAUT, many parts with internal quality details must be inspected and compared to RT results. Do you have a casting with quality details, can we inspect it? Candidate parts should have RT results, weigh less than 200lbs, and fit into a 36”x36”x36” space. Please keep this in mind if you have failed parts as many more are needed to complete this work. Contact Jared ([email protected]) for questions and shipping information.

Next-Gen Manufacturing Meeting

Recently, SFSA webinars showcased AI segments for steel foundries and robotic grinding for steel castings.  In early 2027 we plan to hold a Next Gen Manufacturing meeting near Pittsburgh to demonstrate functional production grinding of job shop steel castings – additional details will be forthcoming to members.  Please contact Dave if you missed the webinars or want to join our NGM group.

Cast in Steel Competition 2027

Seven teams have already signed up to take on the challenge of recreating a replica of a Flanged Mace.

 Mark your calendars to join us April 22-24, 2027, at the Huntington Convention Center in Cleveland, Ohio, where the competition will take place in conjunction with the AFS Metalcasting Congress.

Is your foundry interested in partnering with a team to bring their Flanged Mace to life for the 2027 competition? We’d love to hear from you! Please reach out to Renee.

For full competition details, click HERE.

Casting Dreams

SFSA is collaborating with the Foundry Educational Foundation (FEF) to leverage FEF’s existing high school outreach program to expand Casting Dreams during the 2026/27 school year. FEF plans to conduct approximately 100 high school visits, supported by FEF leadership and industry professionals, with SFSA providing support for student awards for school casting competitions.

SFSA is also supporting expanded hands-on outreach through Mini Foundry Kits for teachers and industry partners. Teacher kits will provide a portable platform for classroom demonstrations, while the planned Mini Foundry Kit 2.0 will enable approximately 30 students to participate in hands-on casting activities. The kits will provide educators and industry ambassadors with standardized resources to introduce students to metalcasting while enabling foundries to conduct outreach with schools in their local communities.

If you are interested to learn more about becoming an industry ambassador and to get connected to schools in your community, please email Joe Costabile with FEF at [email protected].

For the month of September, we had 10 competitions and reached a total of 229 students.

Market News

US Economy and Manufacturing Update

Source: ITR Economics

The U.S. economy continues to demonstrate modest growth, although conditions remain uneven across industries. ITR Economics maintains their projection of real GDP to grow 2.1% in 2026, moderate to 2.1% in 2027, and strengthen to 2.5% in 2028. Industrial production is expected to increase 1.5% in 2026, decline slightly by 0.3% in 2027, and recover with 1.7% growth in 2028.

Leading indicators point to continued economic expansion through the remainder of 2026, followed by softer conditions in 2027 and renewed growth in 2028. Businesses should remain focused on controlling costs, protecting margins, and making disciplined capital investment decisions.

Manufacturing activity remains positive but increasingly divided across markets. Defense capital goods, construction machinery, electrical equipment, and computer and electronics orders continue to demonstrate strong growth, supported by defense modernization, geopolitical uncertainty, AI investment, and expanding data center and power infrastructure.

Defense capital goods new orders are projected to increase 31.7% in 2026 and another 25.6% in 2027 before declining 3.4% in 2028. Construction machinery orders are forecast to grow 13.5% in 2026 before contracting 6.5% in 2027, while civilian aircraft production is expected to remain strong through 2028.

Other manufacturing segments face more challenging conditions. Heavy-duty truck production is projected to recover in 2027 following a 6.5% decline in 2026, while mining and chemical production are expected to weaken in 2027 before improving in 2028. Metalworking machinery orders are forecast to remain positive, although growth will moderate next year.

Overall, manufacturing is expected to experience continued growth through late 2026, followed by a broader slowdown in 2027 and improving conditions in 2028.

SFSA 2027 Market Forecast

What’s ahead for the steel casting industry in 2027? Get a closer look at the market trends, growth opportunities, and challenges shaping the year ahead. The SFSA 2027 Market Forecast, presented at last month’s Fall Leadership Meeting, is now available online to help members prepare for what’s next.

SFSA Business Trends

To benchmark your facility with other steel foundry members, SFSA encourages you to participate in the monthly SFSA business trends survey – only participants have access to the results. Please complete the business trends survey for September 2026: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SFSA_BTB_Sep26. Survey results are provided to participants the following month.

Casteel Commentary

Innovation. The foundry I was at before joining SFSA measured innovation in new part numbers year over year, which was an incredible 30%. While many of these were tweaks to current product, it was also new applications. These new parts promoted or even necessitated new or advanced manufacturing. It brought in new technology from digital radiography to the latest CNC machining center. The steel casting industry has a vast opportunity to innovate:  higher performance steels, controlled filling and active cooling, Quality Detail predictive performance, digital quantitative quality inspection, and high-mix low-volume physical AI manufacturing. However, four decades of globalization has incorrectly created the perspective that steel castings are commodities instead of the engineered shapes to be manufactured by quality foundries that invest with their customers to advance capabilities to be mutually beneficial. With the support of our members, researchers and suppliers, and government partners, we are on the cusp of Steel Foundry 4.0.

True change. Necessity breeds innovation, but innovations matter for us when they impact production of steel castings in industry. Research should not yield expected results 100% of the time. At times research is incremental – we learn something… we fail and quickly redirect if an opportunity to do so or we use the results but not in the intended fashion. Good research with a literature review, using the scientific method, and of course leveraging industry steering and support creates the successes the Society has achieved in its enduring quest to better the steel foundry industry.

Quality Detail Automatic Recognition & Tracking (QDART) was developed with Phil Deierling as a means to capture and utilize quality information that is marked on a casting to inform an operator what work needs to be done, but is rarely transcribed as this action is time consuming and typically would be done on a part drawing which diminishes long-term value of being able to analyze the data.  QDART efficiently captures part quality information through pictures of the casting.  It can then overlay results to build quality heat maps or to look for interaction that is otherwise hard to identify such as a fictitious example of seeing cope side inclusions on all 8630 parts poured with the 1 ton ladle on sunny days.  The system can be used for other purposes such as weld maps and is being looked at for rapid quoting based on recognizing similar castings that have already been fully quoted.  QDART has been deployed at several member foundries with additional deployments planned.  It has seen successful transition with on-going development and innovation to further enhance what it can do in a steel foundry.

Robotic grinding of steel castings has been an industry need but a challenging one to solve.  Grinding steel is not an easy task and CNC or traditional robots requiring part specific programming and fixturing do not translate for job shop production.  SFSA has supported research and commercial suppliers working to develop capable solutions for our industry.  Recently, Instinct Robotics in collaboration with Duraloy Technologies and the support of SFSA, deployed the first known Physical AI grinding robot for steel castings.  It does not rely on scan-n-plan technology that requires all potential operations to be programmed nor does it operate off comparing a part to one that is finished which presents challenges for complex shapes and casting tolerances.  This technology is informed by an operator identifying areas for grinding – this is the programming.   Each part is then scanned for work to be done and for surface dimensions of each individual casting.  Additional deployments of steel foundry robot grinding cells are planned for 2027 with additional advancements in capability in-process.

We will continue to collaborate and innovate to facilitate a sustainable future for steel foundries. The Society has long had an underlying philosophy of friendship, or better stated as a two-way partnership. Whether you are a member or supplier looking to advance the industry, our opportunity is now. Members are encouraged to take ownership in our research projects or put forward new ones. Researchers and suppliers that are able to put forward solutions to industry needs to create true change are encouraged to engage. Our industry is venerable but not standing still – oh, the places we’ll go!

David Poweleit