Univ. of Alabama Dedicates Foundry.

In August, the Univ. of Alabama's College of Engineering's foundry received a facelift as well as a new name. University officials dedicated the new foundry in honor of the late Professor Emeritus Ray Farabee, a professor of metallurgical and materials engineering from 1926-70. The foundry now is known as the Ray L Farabee Metal Casting Laboratory.

Funds for the renovation came from a $2-million campaign supported by the university, the Alabama Cast Metals Assn. and the AFS Birmingham District Chapter, as well as individuals and industry. The improvements include new equipment for induction melting, molding, coremaking, patternmaking, metallurgical analysis, sand testing, rapid prototyping, sonic equipment and a process simulation system.

Farabee created the school's original foundry wing in 1971, at no cost to the university. "A lot of people in prominent positions in this industry were taught by Ray Farabee," said Phil Duke, The Mouat Co., during the dedication of the lab. Duke, an alumnus of the university, located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is the current president of the Foundry Educational Foundation (FEF), and the new foundry dedication coincided with the successful accreditation review of the university's FEF program.