The Investment Casting Institute

The Investment Casting Institute STRENGTH IN COLLABORATION E stablished in 1953, the Investment Casting Institute (ICI) is a 501 c(6) man- ufacturer’s trade association, whose primary mission is to promote the investment casting process, as well as collect- ing and disseminating information about the industry and providing education opportunities to its members.While the majority of the Institute membership comes from North America, member- ship also includes invest- ment casters and suppli- ers from throughout the world, representing virtu- ally every continent. Recently, Business View Magazine spoke with the ICI’s Executive Director, Joseph Fritz, to learn more about the organization and the in- dustry it represents. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation. BVM: What is investment casting? Fritz: “Investment cast- ing is one of the oldest metal forming technol- ogies. It was originally founded either by the Chinese or the Egyptians, who were working to form artwork, statues, and so forth out of beeswax, then building a ceramic shell around the wax, melting the wax out, and then backfilling with whatever metal they were working with; in many cases with the Egyptians, it was gold.