JADAVPUR UNIVRSITY

Department of Mechanical Engineering

A Report On Moulding Sand Testing

And Machine

 NAME: MD FIRDOSH ANSARI  ROLL NO.: 302011201011

 DEPARTMENT: BACHELOR OF M.E.  SECTION: B2
 SUBJECT : WORKSHOP  SEMESTER: 4th Semester
 YEAR : 2nd Year (2020-21)
 GOOD PROPERTIRS OF MOULDING SAND
PERMIABILITY COHESIVENESS ADHESIVENESS PLASTICITY

• Allow gases to • Ability of sand • Ability to stick with • Ability of getting

escape from mold particles to stick other particles i.e. predetermined shape
together Molding box under pressure and
retain it when the
pressure is removed

CHEMICAL
REFRACTORINESS GREEN STRENGTH BINDING PROPERTIES
RESISTIVITY
•Ability of sand to •Strength of sand •Ability of sand to •Should not
withstand high heat with moisture flow to flow to chemically react or
without breaking content should be take up the pattern combine with
down it or fusing very shape molten metal

BINDING PROPERTIES

FLOWABILITY
• Ability of sand to take up the
desired the shape during
ramming
 TYPES OF MOLDING SAND

GREEN DRY LOAM

SAND Mixture of silica SAND Green sand
when dried &
SAND Mixture of silica
and clay (30-
sand, clay (18-
backed in oven 50%) with water
30%) and water
to remove (18%) to a thin
(6-8%)
moistures state

BACKING SYSTEM PARTING

SAND Sand which is black SAND Sand which is used SAND Sand without
in color due to to fill the whole binder and
addition of coal flask. Its strength, moisture which is
dust & burning in reactiveness and used to keep the
contact with the permeability is green sand not to
Molten metal high stick to the pattern

CORE
SAND Highly riched silica FACING Sand which is first
sand mixed with oil SAND applied on the
binders which is pattern so that it
used to make cores comes in contact
i.e. holes in cast with molten metal
 MOLDING SAND TESTING AND ITS MACHINE
SAND TESTINGS are necessary to determine the essential qualities of the
molding sand. The properties of molding sand depends upon shapes, size,
composition and distribution of sand grain. The sand can be tested either
chemical or mechanical methods but we generally use mechanical methods
due to its simple and do not require elaborate equipment. These are the
most important tests to be conducted for any molding sand

• Moisture Content Test

• Clay Content Test
• Grain Fitness Test
• Air Permeability Test
• Refractoriness Test
• Strength Test
• Mould Hardness Test (i.e. Brinell Hardness, Rockwell Hardness)
• Flowability Test
 MOISTURE CONTENT TEST

Moisture is the property of the moulding sand it is defined as the amount of water
present in the moulding sand. Low moisture content in the moulding sand does not
develop strength properties. High moisture content decreases permeability. Moisture
content may be determined by the loss of weight after evaporation.

STEPS INVOLVES ARE:

 20 to 50 gm of sample sand placed in the span and
heated by an infrared heater bulb
 The moisture in the moulding sand is thus evaporate
 The percentage of moisture can be calculated from
the difference in the weights, of the original moist
and the consequently dried sand samples
 Percentage of moisture content
𝑳𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆
=𝑾𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 × 𝟏𝟎
 CLAY CONTENT TEST
Clay influences strength, permeability and other molding properties. It is
responsible for bonding sand particles together. Clay content is determined by
finding the loss of weight after washing of sample obtained after Moisture
Content Test i.e. Dry Sand

STEP INVOLVES ARE:

 Small quantity of prepared molding sand dried
 Separate 50 gm of dry molding sand and transfer wash bottle
 Add 475cc of distilled water + 25cc of a 3% NaOH
 Rotate this mixture at 60 rpm by electric motor for about 1 hour
 Fill the wash bottle with water up to the marker for washing
 Sand, etc are left to settled downed into the jar
 The material, which is not able to settled through 125 mm in 5
minutes is clay and should be removed
 Dry the settled down sand
 The clay content determined from the difference in weights of
the initial and final sand samples.
FOUNDRY SAND GRADING CLASSIFICATION BASED ON GRAIN
FINENESS AND CLAY CONTENT
 GRAIN FITNESS TEST
Fine grains have higher strength but lower permeability whereas coarse grains has lower strength
but higher permeability. The grain size, distribution, grain fitness are determined with the help of
the fitness testing of molding sands. The apparatus consists of a number of standard sieves
mounted one above the other, on a power driven shaker. The shaker vibrates the sieves and the
sand placed on the top sieve gets screened and collects on different sieves depending upon the
various sizes of grains present in the moulding sand. The top sieve is coarsest and the bottom-
most sieve is the finest of all the sieves. In between sieve placed in order of fineness from top to
bottom.

STEPS INVOLVES ARE:

 A set of Standard sieves having meshes 6, 12, 20, 30,
40, 50, 70, 100, 140, 200 and 270 are mounted on a
mechanical shaker
 Sample of dry sand weighted 50 gm (clay removed
sand) placed in the upper sieve
 The above sample is shake about 15 minutes
 The amount of sand retained on each sieve weighted
 Percentage distribution of grain is computed
 The A.F.S grain fineness number will be,
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡
=
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑠
CALCULATION FOR AFS GRAIN FINENESS NUMBER
 REFRACTORINESS TEST
The refractoriness used to measure the ability of the sand to withstand the
higher temperature.

STEPS INVOLVES ARE:

 Prepare a cylindrical specimen of sand
 Heating the specimen at 1500 C for 2
hours
 Observe the changes in dimension and
appearance
 If the sand is good, it retains specimen
share and shows very little expansion. If
the sand is poor, specimen will shrink
and distort.
 MOLD HARDNESS TEST
Hardness of the mold surface tested with the help of an “indentation hardness
tester”. It consists of indicator, spring loaded spherical indenter. The spherical
indenter is penetrates into the mold surface at the time of testing. The depth of
penetration w.r.t. the flat reference surface of the tester.

MOLD HARDNESS NUMBER CAN BE CALCULATED

FROM THE FOLLOWING FORMULA:
𝑷
 Mold hardness number = 𝑫−(𝑫𝟐 −𝒅𝟐 )

Where, P- Applied Force (N)

D- Diameter of the indenter (mm)
d- Diameter of the indentation (mm)
 PERMEABILITY TEST
The quantity of air that will pass per minute through a standard specimen of
the sand at a particular pressure condition is called the permeability of the
sand. There are four conditions of permeability test: (a) Base Permeability
Test, (b) Green Permeability Test, (c) Dry Permeability Test and (d) Back
Permeability Test

PERMEABILITY TEST IS CARRIED OUT BY USING A

PERMEABILITY METER: It has the following parts:
 (a) Water Tank,
 (b) Balanced Air Tank (i.e. Jar) which is floats
over the Water Tank,
 (c) Specimen Tube and
 (d) Pressure Manometer
 PERMEABILITY TEST (Contd)

Steps involved are: PERMEABILITY NUMBER (N) CAN BE CALCULATED

FROM THE FOLLOWING FORMULA:
 1. The air (2000cc volume) held in the bell
jar forced to pass through the sand specimen. Permeability number (N) =
𝑽×𝑯
𝑨×𝑷×𝑻
 2. At this time air entering the specimen Where,
equal to the air escaped through the
specimen V-Volume of air passing through the specimen
(𝑐𝑚3 )
 3. Take the pressure reading in the
manometer. H-Height of the specimen (mm)
 4. Note the time required for 2000cc of air to A-Cross sectional area of the specimen (mm2)
pass the sand
P-Air pressure (gm / cm2)
 5. Calculate the permeability number
T-Time taken by the air to pass through the
sand (seconds)
RANGE FOR GREEN PERMEABILITY FOR MOULDING MIXTURES
USED FOR DIFFERENT METALS
 STRENGTH TEST
Strength of mold sand depends on the size and shape of sand grains, quantity of moisture
content and also degree of hardness. Measurements of strength of molding sands carried out on
the universal sand strength testing machine. The strength measured such as compression, shear
and tension. The sands that could be tested are green sand, dry sand or core sand. The
compression and shear test involve the standard cylindrical specimen that was used for the
permeability test.

STEPS INVOLVES ARE:

 Prepare a cylindrical specimen of sand
whose strength is to be measured
 Place the specimen between the grip of
test equipment
 Pressure is applied by hand wheel until
the specimen breaks
 Reading the high pressure and low
pressure manometers whose scales are
graduated in four different scales each
for compressive, tensile, shear and
bending strength
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF MOULDING SAND USED FOR
DIFFERENT MATERIAL
THANKING YOU