Released on August 18, 2010

A design team from the Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Birmingham, Ala., recently won first place in the ASM International 2010 Undergraduate Design Competition for creating a cupola furnace.

Students Stephen Williams, Carolyn Norwood, Theresa O'Fallon and Creighton Tynes of the materials science department, and Alex Noble, Drew Brandenburg and Justin Sansing of the mechanical engineering department will be awarded the prize for their furnace design by ASM on Oct. 18. The team will receive $2,000 plus up to $500 travel assistance to attend the Material Science & Technology 2010 Conference & Exhibition. The department also will receive $500 to support future design teams.

“This was the students’ ‘capstone’ senior design project, where they were charged with designing, building and testing something,” said Alan Druschitz, a UAB research professor in the department of materials science and engineering. “My [students] chose to build a cupola with hot blast.”

The seven undergraduate seniors produced a 12-in. (diameter) cupola with a heat exchanger, according to Druschitz. The melt rate of the furnace, which will be used by the university’s art department, is 200-220 lbs./hour.

“During the testing phase, the students and I met with UAB Safety and prepared a standard operating procedure and developed a plan to ensure that everyone involved in the operation was properly trained,” Druschitz said.

The art department worked with the design team during the furnace’s testing phase, and the students received assistance from several Birmingham-area companies, including North American Construction, Birmingham Steel Erectors, American Cast Iron Pipe Co., Biscoe Refractories, ABC Coke, Brannon Electric and US Steel.