Founders Industry Contribution Award Winner, Liam Greaves, receives trophy

Liam Greaves receiving his Founders Industry Contribution Award from National ICME President.

At the recent Institute of Cast Metals Engineers Award and Fellow’s Lunch the winner of the Founders’ Industry Contribution Award (non-ferrous), Liam Greaves, was presented with a trophy and certificate.

Liam started at West Midlands based Alucast Ltd almost a decade ago as an Apprentice, winning ICME’s Apprentice of the Year in 2018, and has now progressed to become a Foundry Engineer for the company, leading on many process and quality improvement projects for the company.

Liam Greaves alongside his colleagues from Alucast Ltd, Chairman Tony Sartorius and Apprentice Charlie Thomas.

In particular Liam was selected as the winner for his work on developing thin-wall body-in-white aluminium castings, driving innovation in lightweight automotive manufacturing for the company as well as his ambition and positive attitude to his company and career in the industry.

At the lunch, attended by Master Alan Hughes, Liam was presented with his trophy which had been cast in Yorkshire by previous winner of the award, Mark Spooner of Sylatech Ltd. The company offered to design a trophy that ICME could present to the winner of the award at future awards lunches. Liam’s main prize was a travel bursary, sponsored by one of The Founders Company charities, to be used to fund attendance at UK and international foundry-related events in support of his professional development within the castings industry.

Liam’s Founders Industry Contribution Award Certificate and Trophy.

His employer, Alucast, was founded in the late sixties in Walsall and in 2001 all manufacturing moved to one plant in Wednesbury, the current Alucast site. At this time Tony Sartorius and John Swift took ownership of the business and the company continued to develop, acquiring a machining business in 2008. This led to growing sales and the company now has a TO of around £8m with 105 people now employed, and offers a single-source supply of sand, gravity and high-pressure aluminium castings for a wide range of applications including automotive, transport and general engineering.

Tony and John have always championed people development with new apprentices taken on each year and several of their apprentices have won awards over recent years. This support for future proofing was recognised at the same awards event with Tony (who has recently joined The Founders’ Company) being honoured with an Honorary Fellowship by ICME in recognition of his long-standing leadership and influence in UK casting and manufacturing. Another of their young apprentices, Charlie Thomas also received the institute’s PC Nix Award for the best apprentice from a non-ferrous company.

As Tony said, “These achievements reflect Alucast’s mission to lead the way in engineering excellence, skills development, and future-ready manufacturing.”

Author: Dr Pamela Murrell, Chair of the Founders’ Industry Committee