Tennessee Tech launching a metal casting boot camp, thanks to a $200,000 Department of Defense Grant.
Fred Vondra is Tech’s Manufacturing and Engineering Technology Department Chairman. Vondra said the first week-long boot camp was a success, as 15 participants were able to get hands on experience with casting and forging.
“We want to get as many people interested as we can,” Vondra said. “And even kids that are in the middle school age, high school age, get them fired up about casting. Get them fired up about forging. That’s what our goal is, That’s what our initiative is.”
Vondra said the Department of Defense saw a critical need for more metal casting and forging. Vondra said the US has become too reliant on imports from other countries.
Vondra said these boot camps started at Penn State University and have since spread to colleges across the country. Vondra said the hope is that these camps bring more casting and forging back to the United States.
“Participants got to actually work in our foundry, ram up a mold, and actually pour the mold, and got to keep the casting that they made,” Vondra said. “So that’s part of the initiative. Then, there was the forging portion, where we actually had dyes made. And the students could actually make a coin, cold forged, that they got to keep as well.”
Tech is the only college in Tennessee with a foundry. Vondra said the boot camp’s casting process involves making a mold from sand, then pouring it from hot liquid aluminum. Vondra said the boot camp uses a cold casting process, where tin is pressed into coins.
“Just running up a mold and pouring metal is just a small part of what goes into making a metal casting,” Vondra said. “So we’ll go through that. We’re by no means going to make them a foundry person, but we are trying to get them interested in it.”
Vondra said participants go through some training in metallurgical engineering, which teaches about metal matrixes.
Vondra said the metal casting boot camp has some real world application. He said this is a required course for Tech’s engineering technology major. In addition, Vondra said many Tech graduates move on into the foundry industry.
Vondra said more boot camps are on the way, since the grant will last for two years. The next boot camp will be this fall.
