The 5th annual Cast in Steel competition put on by the Steel Founders Society of America (SFSA) brought the wow factor this year, attracting 34 teams from 31 universities to give their best shot at creating an African spear point. This year’s grand prize winner, announced April 25 following performance testing the day before, was the Steel Broncos team from California Polytechnic University-Pomona including Alexander Ann, Elise Boyd, Anthony Landaverde, William Manzon, and Nikole Sauter.  
Teams were challenged to create the spear point using the casting manufacturing process from design conception to performance. Submissions must have included a preliminary plan, cast spear point with its own handle, a technical report, and project video.

Along with live performance testing, a panel of steel experts also evaluatd the technical reports and video entries. Judges included Ben Abbott and Dave Baker from the History Channel show “Forged in Fire;” John Cory, Magotteaux Inc., Phillip Harrison, Penumbra/Design Studio, Jack Lilley, SFSA alumni, and Pat Nowak, Scot Forge.   

The performance testing can be watched at www.sfsa.org/subject-areas/castinsteel/#Watch_Cast_in_Steel.
Abbott announced the winners to a packed crowd, adding fun tidbits and his favorite details about specific submissions. 
The Pour’n Pioneers from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville (Luca Wagner, Michael Balsewicz, Tim Highum, Travis Hughes, Tim Kent, and Rawson Mangone) won second place while Grand Valley State’s GVSU Casting Club (Jarrett Folkert, Abishek Balsamy Kamaraj, David Pevic, Rock Phelps, Eric Spindler, and Nathan Vugteveen) earned third place overall.

Other winners included:
Best Design and Process
1st—Grand Valley State-GVSU Casting Club
2nd—University of Wisconsin-Platteville-Pour’n Pioneers 
3rd—Georgia Southern-Casting Eagles and mixed team Missouri University of Science and Technology, Michigan Tech, Georgia Southern, University of Wisconsin Platteville, North Dakota College of Engineering & Mines

Best Authentic
1st—University of Wisconsin-Platteville-Pour’n Pioneers 
2nd—University of Wisconsin-Madison-Badgers CIS 
3rd—Grand Valley State-GVSU Casting Club and California Polytechnic University, Pomona-Steel Broncos

Best Casting
1st—California Polytechnic University, Pomona-Steel Broncos 
2nd—California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo-Cal Poly SLOmies 
3rd—California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo-Poly Pointers 

Best Video
1st—Penn State Behrend-Penn University State Behrend 
2nd—California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo-Cal Poly SLOmies 
3rd—Central Michigan-Central MI

Best Performance
1st—California Polytechnic University, Pomona-Steel Broncos 
2nd—University of Wisconsin-Madison-Badgers CIS 
3rd—University of Wisconsin-Platteville-Pour’n Pioneers 

SFSA’s Cast in Steel competition this year was sponsored by AFS and the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program run by the Innovation Capabilities and Modernization (ICAM) Office in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy (ASD IBP). It was also co-sponsored by the Investment Casting Institute, Magmasoft and Non-Ferrous Founders’ Society.