Characterization of Waste and Reclaimed Green Sand Used in Foundry Processing

Abstract

The aim of this study is to discuss the importance of characterization of green, waste green and reclaimed sand. The transformations and changes which take place in the green sand, are due to the casting process. Green sand which loses its properties during the casting process at a high temperature of molten metal results into waste green sand. Various techniques are applied for characterization of foundry sands. They include Universal Testing machine (UTM) for compressive and shear strengths, texture analyzer for impact test, Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) for weight loss kinetics, Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP-AES) for elemental composition, sieves for Grain Fineness Number (GFN), permeability tester for permeability number of the mold, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) for crystallinity, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) for morphology and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for organic functional groups. The waste green sand after being reclaimed in two- stage attrition device, through mechanical attrition, has been later compared with the fresh sand. This study confirms that reclaimed sand can be used either directly for molding or it can be mixed with the appropriate amount of fresh sand.