Materials foundry provides student success and industry impact

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impact 1:49 Materials foundry provides student success and industry impact

By:

Clark Dehart

16 Oct 2024 247

The Kroehling Advanced Materials Foundry, run by Professor of Practice Alan Druschitz, recently assisted the National Museum of the Marine Corps in creating replica pieces for a new exhibit. Druschitz and Virginia Tech student Victoria Rambo created molds of the metal missile fins, then poured molten metal into the molds to create lightweight replicas for the museum.

So, it's the Marine Corps Museum's mission to preserve the artifacts legacy of the United States Marine Corps. The fins that we had recast here at Virginia Tech are actually from an AIM-7 missile that we're having to make a reproduction of for various reasons. Then, they're gonna go on one of our artifacts on display in the new gallery that is opening soon. To make the missile fin castings. We were provided with a production missile fin. We put the sand binder mixture into a box, we level it off, and then we push the original part into the sand to make an impression. And then we melt metal, pour it into a pouring basin on top of the sand mold. The leading edges are on the order of 70 thousandths of an inch. And for a sand mold, that is really thin. So outside of the classroom, the professor has really great opportunities for research. I was actually able to do some undergraduate research on my own, and being able to write my own research paper to get published and go to a national conference to present, really set me up for what I'm going to be doing in my future career. So having that experience was highly valuable to me. So the students really get some super experience in something that's challenging that they haven't seen before. So our students are highly regarded in industry because of their hands on skills and the variety of activities that they've done in the foundry.