Business View Magazine November-December 2018

146 147 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 industry it represents. The following is an edit- ed 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.