Effects of Additives on Some Selected Properties of Base Sand

Abstract

In this study, effects of sawdust, coal dust and iron filling additives at varied proportions on some selected properties of moulding sand were investigated. Consequently, cylindrical specimens with different percentages of additives were prepared based on standard procedures. The prepared specimens were subjected to basic moulding sand testing including moisture content, bulk density, porosity, permeability, green compression strength and green shear strength using standard methods and equipment. From the obtained test results, all the experimental additives were found to improve the selected moulding properties of the base (silica) sand. Moulding sand specimen with sawdust additive revealed a relatively better compaction as compared to moulding sand specimens with coal dust and iron filling additives respectively. The moisture absorbing strength of the moulds was also found to increase with increasing percentage of sawdust. Addition of coal dust to the moulding sand was found to improve sand porosity and permeability which results in less casting defects, and due to improved moisture absorbing strength of sawdust, moulding sand specimens that contained sawdust were equally found to exhibit good compaction with maximum green compressive strength of 108.99 kPa. Also, the combination of 25% sawdust, coal dust and iron filling in the moulding sand was found to produce mould with optimum green shear strength value of 54.49 kPa.