Surface Roughness of Casted LM6 Using Natural Fibre Sand Casting Mould

Abstract

This paper presents the investigation of sand casting process in natural fibre reactions which is utilized kenaf fibre and empty fruit brunch fibre (EFB) in order to reinforce the silica sand casting mould. The investigation was carried out on selecting sand mould which mixture with natural fibre. As a result of surface roughness of kenaf fibre mixed with silica sand, empty fruit bunch fibre mixed with silica sand and silica sand for sand mould was evaluated. The comparison of these three types of sand mould for surface roughness are analysed by using portable surface roughness tester. Technique of mixing the natural fibre and silica sand was presented. The mould was prepared using similar volume of natural fibre between kenaf fibre and empty fruit bunch fibre. The ratio of natural fibre for two type of sand fibre mould using 100 g of natural fibre and 1 kg of silica sand. The third sand mould using only 3.3 kg of silica sand without mixed with natural fibre. Total weight of three type of sand mould is 3.3 kg. Besides, this investigation was employed with 3 mm to 5 mm length range of natural fibre and mixture mutually with silica sand. The addition of natural fibre in the sand casting mould was significantly absorbing the heat of molten metal to the surrounding. As a result, the utilization of kenaf fibre and EFB fibre for sand mould were significant on improving the surface roughness of casted LM6 material.