YSU Team Defends Title – Wins 1st Place at National Metal Casting Competition in 2020.

A team of Youngstown State University students placed first at the 2020 American Foundry Society Southeast Regional Casting Competition in Chattanooga, TN – a competition YSU also won in 2019.  

The team included YSU American Foundry Society Student Chapter members Justin Stellmar, Rachel Hart, Dominic Clutter, and Jacob Kwolek. YSU Manufacturing Engineering student Brendan Thoreson supported the team with 3D scanning. The team’s advisor is Dr. Jason Walker, assistant professor of Manufacturing Engineering. Professor Brian Vuksanovich (Mechanical Engineering Technology) also supervised the project. 

The students reverse engineered an escutcheon plate – an antique hand-crafted decorative article from the renovation of a historic Youngstown building. According to the students, “The goal of this casting was to reproduce an identical part in a way that was both innovative and economical.” 

To achieve their goal, the students utilized a variety of advanced manufacturing techniques. First, a 3D scanner was used to generate a computer model of the only remaining non-damaged escutcheon plate from the renovation site. Next, the students designed a complex mold using Solidworks. The students took a unique approach to the design saying, “The idea for the mold design was to create a stackable 3D printed mold, which could be used to create two to twenty individual plates.” Ultimately, a stack of eight plates was cast. The mold was 3D printed out of sand by Humtown Products in Leetonia, OH. Finally, the mold was assembled and cast by the team in the Bliss Hall Foundry at YSU by melting aluminum and pouring the molten metal into the mold.  

The first place award included a monetary prize of $1,000 that will be used to support future student projects by the YSU AFS Chapter.  

YSU is a Foundry Educational Foundation Affiliated school, one of only 33 in North America. FEF is the cast metal industry's educational program at the college level – providing more than $900,000 annually in scholarships and grants to select students and FEF Key Professors. Over the last four academic years, nearly 80 percent of all graduating students who registered with FEF and reported full-time employment, took a position in the metal casting industry. 

Special thanks to Jennifer Kirkpatrick, YSU Studio Art Support Specialist.

If you’re a student interested in joining the AFS Student Chapter, please contact Dr. Jason Walker (jmwalker05@ysu.edu). All majors and levels of experience are welcome.