RESEARCH REMAINS CORNERSTONE OF U. K. FOUNDRY INDUSTRY.

Despite the declining fortunes of foundries in Great Britain during the past decade and a half, development work by that industry's research and trade groups and vendor organizations remains as one of the industry's major strengths. One of the best known and most widely recognized foundry research organizations is BCIRA (formerly known as the British Cast Iron Research Assoc). Like many of the Western world's foundry trade, technical and research groups, BCIRA has come under increasing pressures, brought about primarily by foundry closures, that have weakened their membership and income bases. They have responded to the shrinking marketplace in various ways, most notably by concentrating on the development of practical industrial applications of laboratory research for the operating foundryman.