Alcoa Howmet, precision castings of Tennessee, Uni-Cast take ICI casting contest top honors.

Alcoa Howmet, Cleveland, Precision Castings of Tennessee Inc., Gallitin, Tenn., and Uni-Cast, Londonderry, N.H., won the top prizes in the Investment Casting Institute's (ICI) casting competition.

The award winners were selected based on the production of castings that demonstrated the unique benefits of the investment casting process.

Alcoa's Howmet Products and Services' Ti-Cast facility, Whitehall, Mich., received the aerospace award for a flight control manifold, manufactured for customer Parker Hannifin.

"It is a product that could not be produced by any other process than investment casting," said Michael Pepper, vice president and general manager of the Whitehall facility. "The manifold has one of the most complex geometries ever manufactured using the investment casting process."

The casting features hollow serpentine passageways, compactness, asymmetry and net-shape surface areas cast from a titanium alloy.

Precision Castings won the electronics category for their laser range finder and target acquisitioning system. The stainless steel casting reduced machining and weight, while increasing strength and corrosion resistance.

A fan housing used in the filtration system of an expiditionary fighting vehicle won the military category for Uni-Cast. Investment casting, according to the judges, was the most economical means of producing the part, which integrated several components.