Future of Foundry Industry

Raymond W. Monroe rejoined the Steel Founders’ Society of America as Executive Vice President on April 1, 1988. Prior to this, for a year he worked for Saturn Corporation, a General Motors subsidiary, in the lost foam casting area. Raymond also was the Research Director of SFSA for five years before leaving to join Saturn Corporation. Other past experience includes contract research in metallurgy, failure analysis and castings processes at the Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Alabama for six years; and, while a student, working for NASA at Marshall Space Flight Center.

He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University and received his M.S. in Engineering Science from the University of Alabama (Birmingham) in 1980. He is active in the American Society for Testing Materials and the American Foundry Society. His prior publications include several papers on metal combustion in oxygen and casting technology. The work in castings has been concerned with mold-metal reactions, quenching, heat treating, gas defects, and cast iron properties. Raymond has authored and co-authored many technical papers and publications, including the AFS book, Expendable Pattern Casting, published in 1992; a comprehensive review of the steel casting process called Making Quality Steel Castings: A Review of 20 Years of Literature.

Raymond has been active in the metal casting industry on behalf of SFSA and the steel foundries. He has been with the Board of the Cast Metals Coalition since its founding in 1989 and served as President in 1998 and 1999. Cast Metals Coalition is a partnership with the Office of Industrial Technology, U.S. Department of Energy Industries of the Future sponsoring research. He has also been on the Board of the American Metalcasting Consortium since its beginning in 1992. This is a partnership with the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency, U.S. Department of Defense to develop casting technology.

Raymond is also on the AFS MACT Task Force Steering Committee, working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the implementation and development of regulations governing the emissions of hazardous air pollutants from steel foundries. He serves on the Industrial Advisory Board for Penn State Manufacturing Engineering and UAB Mechanical and Material Science Engineering. He is active in establishing the SFSA Foundation to support education and research for the future of the Steel Casting Industry.

Ray will be speaking to us about the future of the foundry industry.

Thanks to our meeting sponsors Palmer Mfg., Rivore Metals and Next IT!

We are collecting door prizes and dinner donations for Student Night on March 14!  Each $20 donation buys a dinner for a student, you can donate on the registraion page for this meeting, or contact any Board member.  Contact Andy Scherf at 616-935-3122 to donate door prizes or just bring them to the meeting.