For nearly 18 years now, AFS and our sister publication, Metal Casting Design & Purchasing, have sponsored an annual casting competition recognizing North American-made cast components that have delivered huge benefits to the customer, expanded the capabilities of the casting process and contributed to the growth and expansion of the casting market. Over the years, winners of the competition have included superb examples of casting conversions, emerging casting techniques and tools, and excellent design engineering that resulted in crazy cost savings.

Winners of the casting competition receive recognition from their peers, sure. They also gain attention from current and potentially new customers. Past winners have commented to me about how the award led to new business with companies that had heard about them from the competition.

The Annual Casting Competition is now accepting submissions for the 2019 Casting of the Year. I encourage you to consider submitting a casting and take advantage of the free promotion that comes with it. Even the castings that don’t win are often featured in case study articles later in the year.

In 2019, we’re also changing things up a little. We want to see as many different casting designs as we can, and we also recognize that great casting success stories come in all varieties of forms. So along with our main Casting of the Year award, we are introducing four more awards:

1.    Newcomer (Rookie of the Year)
This award will go to a company that has not submitted a casting in the last 10 years. Don’t be intimidated to enter the contest and show your stuff.

2.    Best Example of a Casting Conversion
This award will recognize companies that used metalcasting’s strengths to convert a product from a non-casting process.

3.    Achievement in a Small Foundry Business
Not every foundry has armies of staff. Smaller facilities are doing great work, and they are a key part of the industry. This will reward companies that are doing more with fewer workers.

4.    Best Innovation/Prototype
The metalcasting industry continues to evolve and stride into the future. That’s partly because metalcasters are always stretching capabilities and looking for newer and better. This category is for castings that might not be ready for full production but could be the precursor to the next big thing.

More information about the contest and how to submit can be found on our website at www.moderncasting.com/casting-competition. Let us see what your foundry can do!

Click here to see this story as it appears in the November 2018 issue of Modern Casting