The Specialty Alloy and Foundry Technology Committee (SAFTC) met in Homestead, Pa., on Sept. 24–25. Dennis Rodal, tour host and SAFTC papers chair, presented “A Warm Home for Metals” at ELG Metals’ McKeesport Plant. This facility has been in operation for 36 years. Current scrap yard inventory has a value of $40 million. ELG Metals maintains a 30% worldwide market share for alloy scrap sales. Mr. Rodal will make this presentation at AISTech 2009 in St. Louis, Mo. The SAFTC will schedule a Specialty Training Conference entitled “Stainless and Specialty Alloy Melting, Refining and Solidification” in Pittsburgh, Pa., in October 2009. Confirmed presenters to date are Allen Chan of Praxair Inc., Mark Suer of Special Metals Corp., and Mr. Rodal of ELG Metals. The 2009 Call for Papers resulted in eight papers being selected for an SAFTC session at AISTech 2009. The committee emphasized the importance that each future meeting revolve around a plant tour of a producer or supplier facility. SAFTC membership is at 68 members, with 12% committee member participation. It is hoped that future plant tour sites will increase member participation. Committee chair Andy Pinskey, of Holland Manufacturing, thanked ELG Metals for hosting the dinner during this meeting and providing valuable insight into alloy scrap values.

The Specialty Alloy and Foundry Operating Committee (SAFOC) met at AISTech 2008 in Pittsburgh on May 7. Allen Chan reviewed the AIST/AISI integration progress. The new committee name is the Specialty Alloy and Foundry Technology Committee (SAFTC). Membership stood at 69 members, and the committee’s roster was updated by Mark Suer and Pat Philbin. The election of 2008–2009 officers took place. Andy Pinskey of Holland Mfg. was elected as chair, Steven Lukes of Carpenter Specialty Alloys as vice chair, Dennis Rodal of ELG Metals Inc. as papers chair, and Mark Suer of Special Metals Corp. as members chair. Two sessions at AISTech 2008 showed strong attendance, though there were three cancellations. The next meeting site will be a tour of ELG Metals Inc. near Pittsburgh, Pa., on Sept. 24–25. For winter 2009, Jim Korn will investigate touring Carmeuse Long View in Alabama or Strasberg/Winchester in Virginia. The 2009 Call for Papers was issued, and a teleconference is to take place in August regarding paper selection. Mr. Chan was presented with a plaque for his outstanding work as committee chair for 2007–2008.

March 3 , 2008 - The Specialty Alloy and Foundry Operating Committee (SAFOC) met March 3 in Columbus, Ohio. The Ohio State University provided the committee a tour of its Materials Science and Engineering Department. Professor Sahai discussed Ohio State’s engineering metals curriculum, which has recently gained in importance due to the steel industry’s demand for metallurgists. Ohio State’s student chapter for AIST will recruit a guest speaker for an informal gathering on campus to discuss steel industry opportunities. The committee currently has 73 members. AISTech paper presentations were reviewed, with two sessions scheduled for Monday, May 5. Nominations for committee officers were held, and voting will occur during the next meeting at AISTech 2008. Future committee tours will include a scrap yard and a lime plant in Western Pennsylvania. A round table discussion on human resources and recruiting involved Rosemary Hill, director of engineering career services at OSU. One part of the discussion focused on the ineffective tactics that corporations continue to use in recruiting. Suggestions for enticing today’s engineering student are to make recruiting measures Web-based, user-friendly and short in duration. OSU promotes a strong, supportive co-op program for companies to offer students for possible employment.

October 24 , 2007 - The Specialty Alloy and Foundry Operating Committee (SAFOC) met for a brief business meeting on Oct. 24, 2007, in Cleveland, Ohio, after the conclusion of the Stainless Steelmaking and Casting Training Seminar. After brief introductions and a review of association-related business, a review of the training seminar was held. The members were very pleased with the results of this year’s seminar. It was determined that, with the limited audience of specialty steel producers, the training seminar should be scheduled every other year and should have a greater focus on the steelmaking aspect of the more exotic grades of steel. The casting portion of the conference should be handled by the Continuous Casting Training Seminar due to the many similarities. There will still be information presented on ingot making. The committee then heard from Steve Lukes, papers chair, regarding the selection of abstracts for the SAFOC technical sessions at AISTech 2008. Enough papers were identified for the committee to sponsor three sessions: AOD/VOD, stainless steel casting and specialty alloy. The meeting concluded with a discussion regarding the next meeting, which is tentatively scheduled for March 3 in Columbus, Ohio. The committee is looking to include The Ohio State University Student Chapter of AIST. The topic of discussion would be human resources, recruiting and training, and the meeting will include a tour of the foundry at Honda of America in Marysville, Ohio.

March 8, 2007 - The Specialty Alloy and Foundry Operating Committee (SAFOC), formerly the Specialty Steelmaking Operating Committee, held its first meeting of the year in Grove City, Pa., on March 8, 2007. After member introductions and a review of the new committee name and mission statement, the members reviewed the status of the SAFOC technical sessions for AISTech 2007. The sessions were rearranged to accommodate the availability of some papers and were consolidated into two sessions. The attendees were then asked to consider candidates for SAFOC officer positions. Elections will be held at the SAFOC meeting during AISTech 2007. The vice chair then provided an update on the Stainless Steel Melting and Refining Training Seminar, being planned for Cleveland, Ohio, in October 2007. The committee chair then brought forward ideas developed by the AIST Technology Division leadership that AIST Operating Committees could consider to improve their meeting attendance and technical content. A round table discussion was then held on “The Effect of Scrap Quality and Availability on Your Operation and the Effect of Raw Material Availability on Operations.” The round table concluded with a side discussion on hiring, training and retaining qualified personnel. The meeting concluded with a tour of Hodge Foundry in Greenville, Pa. Joe Simko, president and general manager, and Mike Forsh, manufacturing manager of Hodge Foundry, provided a thorough overview of the facility, its capabilities, and their product lines of gray and ductile iron. The tour included the pattern shop, the mold and core preparation areas, the three channel induction furnaces, and the quality and inspection areas of the foundry, as well as a demonstration of their MagmaSoft casting modeling program.

January 8, 2007 - A brief conference call by the Specialty Steelmaking Operating Committee (SSOC) was held on Jan. 8, 2007. After introductions and an update on AIST activities, the committee voted on and approved their new committee name: the Specialty Alloy and Foundry Operating Committee. The name was determined based not only on its members being from the stainless steel industry, but also recognizing the foundry industry and the industries involved in the production of alloys or superalloy steel. The new name requires the approval of the Electric Steelmaking Operating Committee before it can become final. The committee then reviewed comments from attendees at the Stainless Steel Finishing Course, held Oct. 23–24, 2006. Overall, the course was well received, as was the tour of Worthington Steel. Next was a review of the SSOC-sponsored technical sessions for AISTech 2007. Session chairs were given instructions to begin contacting authors to ensure their participation in this year’s program. A discussion was also held regarding the creation of a Specialty Alloy and Foundry topics listing for the AISTech 2008 Call for Papers. Nominations were also discussed for the committee leadership in 2007–2008. Elections will be held at the committee’s lunch meeting at AISTech 2007 in Indianapolis, Ind. Finally, a Stainless Steel Melting and Refining Training Seminar was approved, and planning began for the seminar to be held in Columbus, Ohio, in October 2007. The vice chair volunteered to head up the efforts to pull together the presenters and organize the program for this seminar.

October 2, 2006 - The Specialty Steelmaking Operating Committee held a conference call on Oct. 2. The committee approved the changing of its name to the Specialty Alloy and Foundry Operating Committee. The name change will need to be approved by the Electric Steelmaking Operating Committee and confirmed by the AIST board of directors. The members also approved a new mission statement for their Operating Committee. The chair gave an overview of the Stainless Steel Finishing Mini-Course that was held Oct. 23–24 in Columbus, Ohio. The committee then reveiwed the abstract selections for AISTech 2007 and organized sessions on foundry operations and stainless steel melting and processing.

August 4, 2006 - The Specialty Steelmaking Operating Committee held a meeting on Aug. 4 at the AIST headquarters in Warrendale, Pa. After introductions and a discussion on committee membership, which included the incorporation of a Foundry Operations Committee, the committee heard an update regarding the Stainless Steel Processing Mini-Course, to be held in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 23–24. The members then reviewed the abstracts submitted for the specialty steelmaking sessions at AISTech 2007. Abstracts were selected for a foundry session, a stainless steel refining session and a stainless steel casting session. After abstracts were selected, the members began the creation of an operating committee mission statement to clarify who they are and where they will focus their efforts. Specifically included in the drafted mission statement was information on foundries, stainless steel, specialty alloy production and powdered metals. The committee will hold a conference call in October to finalize its sessions for AISTech 2007.     

May 1, 2006 - The Specialty Steelmaking Operating Committee held a lunch meeting on May 1 in Cleveland, Ohio, to further develop the committee and its activities. The committee received an update on their Stainless Steel Processing Training Seminar, to be held Oct. 23–24 in Columbus, Ohio. The committee also discussed incorporating the former Iron & Steel Society Special Arcs Committee and the Foundry Operations Committee members into the Specialty Steelmaking Operating Committee. Members will be reaching out to those individuals to add them to the current committee. The Specialty Steelmaking Operating Committee will meet again on Aug. 4 at the AIST headquarters in Warrendale, Pa.

October 19, 2005 - The Specialty Steelmaking Operating Committee held a brief meeting at the AIST headquarters in Warrendale, Pa., on Oct. 19. The committee organized a technical session focused on specialty steelmaking for AISTech 2006, and they named chairs for the session. The committee also discussed the current status of the Stainless Steel Processing Seminar. The members organizing the seminar will be surveyed to determine a practical and effective location for the seminar in 2006. The committee also discussed methods to solicit new members to the committee. The committee will host a conference call meeting in January to finalize plans for AISTech 2006 and to review the status of the Stainless Steel Processing Seminar.

May 10, 2005 - The Specialty Steelmaking Operating Committee held its first-ever committee meeting at AISTech 2005 in Charlotte on May 10. The committee elected officers and determined to hold future meetings in conjunction with the Electric Steelmaking Operating Committee. The committee is organizing an AIST Specialty Conference on the processing of stainless flat rolled products.