Improving the Surface Quality of Sand Castings

using Newly Invented Local Sand-Clay Mixture

Dr. Indika De Silva

Senior Lecturer
Dept. of Materials Science &
Engineering
Faculty of Engineering,
University of Moratuwa,

 In 2005, Department of Materials

Science and Engineering, university
of Moratuwa conducted a National
survey to investigate the situation of
local foundries including types of
foundry products and their quality.

Analysis of Response from

the Districts
Kandy
Colombo
Gampaha
Kurunegala
Matara
Galle
Hambanthota
Kegalle
badulle

Analysis of Types of Foundries in Sri Lanka

5%
12%
39%

Brass
Aluminium
Cast Iron
Bronze

44%

Analysis of Foundry Items

Produced in Sri Lanka

23%

16%

Door & window fittings

Kitchen equipments

14%

Ornaments
Automobile parts

12%

Pump parts

12%

23%

Machinery parts

Analysis of moulding sand used in all types

of foundries
Tile dust & Granite
powder
3%
5%

6%

Silica sand (local) &

Bentonite (lmported)

24%

Silica sand (lmported) &

Bentonite (lmported)
Granite powder
8%

Aruwakkaru sand
50%

2%

Silica sand (local) &

clay(kirimati)
other

Analysis of Casting Defects of all Types of Foundry Products

shrinkage

5%

17%

Blow holes

16%

slag inclusions
sand inclusions
Misrun

9%
8%
7%

6%

3%
7%
5%

4%

13%

swell
Erosion
Shifts
Porosity
Pin holes
Cold shut
Cracks

Casting Defects

Blow holes

Sand inclusions

Erosion

Swell

Cracks

Etc.

will influence

Surface
Roughness

Can be controlled by

Properties of the
sand-clay mixture

Gating system
of the mould

Composition of
the material

Pouring
temperature

Properties of sand clay mixture significantly affect

the surface roughness

PROPERTIES OF FOUNDRY SAND

Clay content
Dry Compression Strength
Hot Compression Strength
Moisture content
Permeability
Collapsibility
Fineness
Refractoriness

Clay Content
Water develops the bonding characteristics of the clay,
which binds the sand grains together and creates enough
plasticity.
Total clay content has certain amount of dead clay
and the other portion is known as active clay content
Active clay content is the amount of clay which is
activated by the moisture.
Normally sand-clay mixture with 3-6% active clay content
is recommended.
Reusability of the sand clay mixture is totally depended
on the active clay content.
Montmorillonite type clays have high reusability because it
has very low burnability.

Clay content Testing

Machine
Electric
motor

Agitator
Glass

Base cup
Syphon tube

(i) 475ml of distilled water and 25ml of caustic

soda solution (25g per litre) is added to 50g
sample of dried ( It should be dried until become a
constant weight) sand-clay mixture.
(ii) It was agitated for 5 minutes with a mechanical
stirrer or shaker. Then diluted with water to a height
of 150 mm (up to marker) and let same for 10
minutes.
(iii)Siphoned off 125 mm of water, diluted again to 150
mm and let it settle for 10 minutes.
(iv)Siphoned off 125 inches of water, diluted again to
150 mm and let it settle for 5 minutes.
(v) Repeated step (iv) enough times, so that after
standing for 5 minutes the water is clear.

(vi) Removed the remaining sand grains from the

bottle, dried and reweighed.
(vii)The loss in weight of the original 50g sample
multiplied by 2, gives the AFS clay
percentage in the sand.

Active clay content Testing

- Methylene blue Clay Teste
Machine
Bottle of Methylene blue
solution

Burette

Motor driven
stirrer
Overflow
bottle
Metal
base

Stainless steel beaker

Moisture content
The ideal amount of moisture in sand-clay mixture
is that just sufficient to yield the necessary
plasticity and adhesiveness.
Excess moisture results in the formation of large
volumes of steam, which cannot be vented
adequately through the sand.
Entrapped steam thus produces cavities in the
casting.
Normally sand-clay mixture with 4-7% moisture
content is recommended

Moisture content Testing

Machine
Air Blower

Time Switch

Thermostat
Pan Holder
Drying
Pan

(i) A 50g of sand clay mixture was weighed and put it into
the drying pan Dry the content for 15 minutes using
hot air (hot air is passed through the material to be tested).
(ii) The sample was weighed again. Then the above
procedure was continued until the weight become
constant.
(iii)The loss in weight multiplied by 2 gives the moisture
content in percentage.

Permeability
The capability of transmit gases through pore spaces
is defined as the Permeability.
Rounded and uniform particles cause improving the
permeability.
Permeability of moulding sand is expressed as an AFS
(American Foundrymens Society) permeability
number, which refers to the volume of air per minute,
under a given pressure, passing through a unit
volume of sand.
the surface finish of a casting is impaired by large
pores.
generally, the coarser the sand the higher the
permeability.

Permeability Meter
Orifice

Centre post
Knurled ring

Rheostat

Main
Switch

Compression Strength
Compression strength of a sand-clay mixture
depends primarily on the nature of the bonding
clay.
Particle size distribution and the shape of the
particles also affects to the Compression strength.
Green strength - green sand: after water has
been mixed into it, must have adequate strength
and plasticity for making and handling of the
mold.

 Hot
strength
After
moisture
has
evaporated, the sand may be required to
possess
strength
at
some
elevated
temperature, above 100 oC.
- Erosion, cracks, or breakage may occur
due to Metallostatic pressure unless the
sand possesses adequate hot strength.

Preparing AFS Standard Sample

Hinged
Clamps
AFS
Standard
Sample
Pedesta
l Cup

Universal Sand Strength Machine

Scale
Pusher
arm
AFS
standard
Sample
Hand
wheel

Weight arm
Compression heads
Magnetic
rider

Fineness Number
Fine particles causes good surface finish.
Fine particles causes poor venting,
Therefore, require to allow safe and
proper venting system in the mould.

Sieve Shaker

Motor

Eccentric wheel
Time switch
Sieves

How to find the finness

No.?
Aperture
size (m).

Wt.of sand
Remaining(g)

Mesh
No.

Wt.of sand
remaining (%)

250
150
106
75
53
pan

7.16
16.05
12.51
7.86
3.15
2.21
48.94

60
100
150
200
300

7.32
16.40
12.78
8.03
3.22
2.26
50.00

4792.82
= 95
Fineness No =
50

Product
7.32
984.00
1278.00
1204.50
644.00
675.00
4792.82

Shatter Index
The capability of the mould to withstand the
pressure created inside the cavity.
It gives an idea about the toughness and
mouldability of sand-clay mixture.

Shatter Index Tester

Plunger
Specimen
Tube

AFS standard
Sample

Retaining pan

Grain
Shapes

Shape and Distribution of Sand

Grains
Size, size distribution, and shape of the sand
grains are important in controlling the quality of
the mold.
Most mold aggregates are mixtures of new sand
and reclaimed sand, which contain not only
reclaimed molding sand but also core sands.
grain shape contributes to the amount of sand
surface area and that the grain size distribution
controls the permeability of the mold.

 As the sand surface area increases in angular

grains, the amount of bonding material (normally
clay and water) must increase if the sand is to be
properly bonded.
The angularity of a sand increases with use because
the sand is broken down by thermal and mechanical
shock.
Rounded grains have low surface area,
therefore preferred for making cores because they
require the least amount of binder.

 The porosity of the mold controls its permeability,

which is the ability of the mold to allow gases
generated during pouring to escape through the
mold.
Highest porosity will result from grains that
are all approximately the same size.
As the size distribution broadens, there are
more grains that are small enough to fill the spaces
between large grains.
As grains break down through repeated recycling,
there are more and more of the smaller grains, and
the porosity of the mold decreases.
However, if the porosity of the mold is too high,
metal may penetrate the sand grains and cause a

Clays (binders)
The most common clays used in bonding green
sand molds are bentonites, which are forms of
montmorillonite or hydrated aluminum silicate.
Montmorillonite is built up of alternating
tetrahedra of silicon atoms surrounded by oxygen
atoms, and aluminum atoms surrounded by
oxygen atoms, as shown in Fig. 1.
This is a layered structure, and it produces clay
particles that are flat plates. Water is adsorbed on
the surfaces of these plates, and this causes
bentonite to expand in the presence of water and
to contract when dried.

Montmorillonite type
clays
when water is absorbed by the crystals they
tend to swell to several times their original
volume and retained moisture.

Structure of Silica Tetrahedra

Structure of Alumina or Magnesia Octahed
Fig. 1

Schematic representation of Montmorillonite

structure

Oxide

Silica sand

Montmorillonite
clay

SiO2

97.0-99.0

49.0-55.0

Al203

0.7-0.8

15.0-19.0

Fe203

0.2-0.3

6.0-10.0

Na2o3

0.4-3.6

K20

0.6-2.0

CaO

0.1-5.5

MgO

0.10-0.15

TiO2
LOI*

1.3-2.7
1.0-1.5

0.2-0.3

8.0-15.7

NOVEL FOUNDRY SAND

Mixture of Naththandiya sand and locally
available natural clay (LNC).
Properties of novel foundry sand were
obtained closer to the Japanese foundry sand
by controlling the following parameters;
Ratio between Naththandiya
sand and LNC
Size of the sand and clay
particles
water content

Properties of novel foundry

sand
Permeabi Shatt GCS
Clay content (%) Fineness
lity No.
er
(KgcmNo.
Index 2)
Total
Active
clay
clay
Japanes
e sand

47

69

1.06

22.1

6.33

104

Novel
sand

40

56

0.95

20.2

5.4

96

Surface
Roughness
(m)

Reusability

Japanese
sand

47

10

Novel sand

40

Surface Roughness of
deferent Foundry sand

Japanese sand
Reusability 10
Roughness 47.61m

Novel foundry
sand
Reusability 8
Roughness 47.10
m

Silica-Bentonite
mixture
Reusability- 12
Roughness- 85 m

Surface Roughness measuring

Existing methods
Stylus Profilometry (contact mechanical method)

2
2
2
2
(
h
)

(
h
)

(
h
)

.....

(
h
)
1
2
3
n
RMS Roughness (Rq) =
n

- Not suitable for castings with complex shapes

Simple shapes

Complex shapes

 Optical Method (Non- contact method)

Rougher the surface

higher the proportion of incident light that is scattered

- Accuracy is excellent
- More expensive

Novel Method to measure the Surface roughness

Ultrasonic Echo Amplitude Technique
- Suitable for castings with complex shapes.
- Less expensive compared to the optical method.

THEORY
The intensity of an ultrasonic beam sensed by a receiving
transducer is considerably less than the intensity of the
incident beam.
Attenuation is the term used to describe this condition of
ultrasonic energy loss.
In ultrasonic testing of materials, attenuation occurs mainly
due to,

Absorption (a)
Beam spread (bs)
Scattering (s)

In addition, coupling medium and surface roughness also

contribute to the attenuation in a least effective manner.

 However, attenuation due to surface roughness

will be significantly high in castings.
Therefore, it would be possible to determine the
surface roughness using attenuation measurements
in castings.
The developed novel method is based on this
phenomenon.

 A corelation was established between the roughness

values obtained from stylus method and the newly
developed ultrasonic method.
Different grades of emery papers were used as test
samples for this purpose.
The results were used to plot a calibration curve.
In practice this curve can be used to obtain surface
roughness in the standard units, m using
ultrasonic attenuation measurements.