Hoyt lecture: reexamination of engineering education is due

Modern Casting, June, 2007

The globalization of the economy has put the engineering profession at a crossroads, according to Diran Apelian, director of the Metal Processing Institute, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Mass., and author of this year's Metalcasting Congress Hoyt Memorial Lecture.

Apelian, who has been involved in the instruction of engineering and materials science in varying degrees for three decades, discussed the emerging challenges facing today's young engineers in his lecture, "The Engineering Profession in the 21st Century--Educational Needs and Societal Challenges Facing the Profession" (07-155).

"The engineering profession in the 21st century is evolving between developing and developed countries in light of certain aspects of engineering talent becoming a commodity," Apelian writes in his paper. The engineering profession is about to become very competitive for those who wish to hold positions that are more than just plug-and-play jobs.

In his lecture, Apelian pointed to meaningful graduate and undergraduate internships as opportunities to foster innovative thinking, communication skills and the ability to appropriate the necessary sources to see a vision through to completion.

"The education of the engineers of the future must prepare them to see new opportunities as well as give them the skills needed to marshal the resources to realize their ideas," Apelian said.

Apelian began his career as a teaching assistant at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., where he received his doctorate in materials science and engineering. He has worked in the product research department at Bethlehem Steel Corp., Bethlehem, Pa., as professor, department head and vice-provost at Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, and as provost and vice president of academic affairs at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He received the AFS Scientific Merit award in 1990 and has held more than 30 committee positions at technical associations.

Molding Methods and Materials Silver Anniversary Paper

Daryl Hoyt, Foundry Sand Technology, Marseilles, Ill., delivered the Molding Methods and Materials Silver Anniversary Paper, "Identifying and Eliminating the Variables that Affect the Performance of Nobake and Coldbox Binder Systems," (07-001) during a Wednesday technical session of the Metalcasting Congress.

In his paper, Hoyt discusses sand specifications, sand testing procedures, mixing procedures, venting and real time testing procedures to monitor and improve the system's consistency and performance.

According to Hoyt, metalcasters can monitor their binder systems using the following steps:

* retaining sand samples or cores and identifying them by date, time of production and the quality of the cores, molds and castings to use as samples of the mixed sand that provided the best performance and the least acceptable performance;

* analyzing the samples after the LOI test to determine the possible causes and source of the variations;

* continuing monitoring of the relationship of the source of variation correlated to changes in the core, mold and casting quality.

Cast Iron Honorary Lecture

Charles Bates, retired professor, Univ. of Alabama-Birmingham, presented the AFS Cast Iron Div. Honorary Lecture. His presentation, "Near Term Technical Developments for Casting Production" (07-169), looked at various ways to produce quality iron castings through modeling, nondestructive inspection, resonance analysis, pressurized solidification, defect formation visualization and porosity reduction.

Bates proposed that while fluid flow modeling is capable of accurately predicting turbulence and the surface area of molten metal exposed to air within the mold, metalcasters still need to use real-time x-ray technology to verify that the molds are filling in the expected manner.

In the area of non-destructive testing, Charles Bates Bates suggested that digital radiography is a viable option for defect analysis, quoting a recent study in which digital radiography found 94% of the defects, whereas other inspection techniques, such as double- and single-wall film, detected 55-79% of defects. Bates also proposed that the results of resonant frequency analysis will often correlate to overall strength; it can show shrinkage, gas holes, surface cracks and inclusions.

Bates also concluded that pressurized solidification can reduce porosity values from 0.75% to 0.01% and improve fatigue life by 50%.