Abstract
Silica sand is traditionally used in foundry applications as a moulding material. Due to the depletion of natural materials, there is a need to find suitable alternative material, which will replace the conventional materials. In view of the large quantity of blast furnace slag availability, having similar physical and chemical properties with silica sand present investigations are focused to evaluate the suitability of GBF slag as an alternative mould material in foundries. In the present investigation three types of moulds were made with slag, silica sand individually and combination of these two. Sodium Silicate-CO2 process was used for making the necessary moulds. Two types of commonly used automobile parts like Gear wheel and Connecting rod was selected for casting the same. A356 (Al-7.5% Si) alloy castings were performed on these newly developed slag and sand moulds. The cast products were investigated for its quality evaluation by non destructive methods; in this investigation Visual inspection, Liquid penetrant, Ultrasonic and Radiographic tests was used. Results reveal that the castings were performed successfully in GBF slag and sand moulds. The cast products show good surface finish with dimensional accuracy. NDE results evident that both sand and slag mould cast products had a sound castings with neither surface, subsurface defects nor internal defects.
Published Version
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