Uniting Small Manufacturers: Q&A With Russell Winter, Founder of US MFG
Russell Winter has spent most of his life on a machine shop floor. As a third-generation tool and die maker, Winter cut his teeth at his grandfather’s company in Illinois, […]
The Skills Gap Threatening America’s Foundries: How Keystone Development Partnership Plans to Fix It
Keystone Development Partnership (KDP) launched 20 years ago after a massive skills gap derailed Pennsylvania’s transportation industry. Now, America’s metal industry faces a similar situation. An unprecedented labor gap has […]
If I Can Cast, You Can Too: A First-Timer’s Experience in the Foundry
Nothing could have prepared me for my first time in a foundry. Yet there I was at Erie Bronze and Aluminum Co., mesmerized by the sound of grinding machines, the […]
Reindustrialize and Pour Some Metal
Heat. It whooshed past me as big buckets of bubbling bronze moved through the air, tethered to a crane, with one large, silver-clothed man guiding them from one place to […]
Careers in High Gear: Tennessee School for the Deaf Students Learn Sand Casting with METAL
Sparks flew as students from Tennessee School for the Deaf turned a university foundry into their classroom. Through METAL’s hands-on workshop, eight high school students pounded sand molds, poured molten […]
Casting Opportunity: How Barron Industries Forges the Future of Aerospace and Defense
The first time Bruce Barron walked into Barron Industries’ investment casting facility, he found a dimly lit room with low ceilings, barely the size of a basketball court, and a […]
Georgia Southern University partners with METAL to advance workforce training in metalworking and manufacturing
STATESBORO, Georgia (February 11, 2026) – The Metallurgical Engineering Trades Apprenticeship & Learning (METAL) program, led by IACMI – The Composites Institute®, is proud to announce a new partnership with […]
METAL Is for Everyone: Finding Your Place in Metals Manufacturing
Dr. Alexandra (Allie) Glover remembers her grandfather, Douglas Glover, by his quirky inventions, from a mechanical cherry pitter to a peanut butter stirrer, and his passion for metallurgy. He was […]
Purdue University programs partner with METAL to advance workforce training in metalworking and manufacturing
WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (February 3, 2026) – The Metallurgical Engineering Trades Apprenticeship & Learning (METAL) program, led by IACMI – The Composites Institute®, is proud to announce a new partnership […]
NC State awarded Department of War-funded METAL hub to advance U.S. metals workforce
RALEIGH, North Carolina (January 14, 2026) — North Carolina State University is proud to announce a new partnership with the Metallurgical Engineering Trades Apprenticeship & Learning (METAL) to enhance and […]
A Lifetime of Casting: Cal Poly Pomona’s “Metalcasting Guy” Inspires Tomorrow’s Metal Workers
About 1,500 miles south of Cal Poly Pomona, in Guadalajara, Mexico, Dr. Victor Okhuysen learned his family’s trade: metalcasting. Today, Okhuysen, the interim associate dean for the College of Engineering […]
Where Sparks Fly: Michigan Tech Builds Metalcasting Momentum with METAL
Dr. Paul Sanders fell in love with metalcasting in the foundry at Michigan Technological University more than 30 years ago. Today, as a materials science and engineering professor at his […]