Comparison and evaluation of the cast iron castings surface using different types of foundries sands

Abstract

This study investigates and compared various properties of high-quality foundry sands on the surface quality of castings, whose cores are produced using the col-box method. Methods such as the measurement of flushable fraction, sieve analysis, electron and optical microscopy, pH and electrical conductivity measurements were used to monitor the physico-chemical properties of silica and non-silica sands. 5 core mixtures were prepared from individual sands by adding 1.6 % of organic binder based on phenol-formaldehyde formed from resin and hardener using an MR100 mixer. The produced cores were placed in moulds made of a uniform bentonite mixture and cast (15 test castings). In all the tested sand samples, the dust content was visible at a 300× magnification, but the share of flushable content is not exceeded 3 %, which is one of the fundamental conditions for moulding. All the tested sands are heat resistant at 1600 °C and had a low flushable fraction in the range 0.05–0.3 %. The results indicate that the occurrence of surface defects in high-quality foundry sands is not related to the flushable fraction content, to the average grain size value d50, to the electrical conductivity, to the shape of the sand grains and to the flexural strength. The surface roughness is related to the average grain size, to the grain shape and to the flexural strength.