A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held on Friday to celebrate the opening of a new foundry at the Capstone. The new metal casting workshop will serve as a collaboration place for both the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences.

“I am really excited about the opportunities the new foundry will present for our students,” Charles Karr, dean of the College of Engineering, said.

The foundry is about 5,000 gross square feet and contains three Inductotherm furnaces for melting cast-iron, steel and alloys.

“First of all, we have a long history of doing exciting foundry work in the College of Engineering,” Karr said. “Unfortunately, our former foundry came offline as we were making room for the North Engineering Research Center, the fourth building in the Shelby and Engineering and Science Quad.”

The ribbon cutting ceremony and dedication will be held at 1 p.m. between Hardaway Hall and the Bureau of Mines building on campus.

“I am very pleased that we were able to construct our new facility because our students really get a leg up on other graduates from across the country due to their experiences in our foundry,” Karr said.

The University of Alabama is one of only 20 schools certified by the Foundry Educational Foundation is the United States.

“It’s great that after all the rebuilding these two departments will have a building to share,” Hunter Hardin, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said.

The foundry also contains a withdrawal furnace from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center for melting and casting metals under a vacuum.

“I am very supportive of the idea of having a joint-use foundry,” Karr said. “I believe strongly that the art students will learn from our engineering students, and I have no doubt that the learning will flow the other way as well. Having spaces like this that allow for our students to enhance their creativity is a real plus for the College of Engineering.”