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Met 221 Assignment #6 Name KEY

Due: 10:30 AM, Friday, February 15, 2001


Read Chap. 14 in the text, pp. 365-379

1. What is the oldest, fastest, most common, and least expensive mold making process?
green sand molding

2. What is it that makes a green sand "green"?


moisture

3. Describe the purpose for each of the typical ingredients in green sand
A) sand - refractory
B) clay - binder
C) water - activates the binder
D) seacoal - changes to coke at mold cavity surface when hot and expand up to 3X to fill voids

4. Describe the purpose of each of the following:


A) Slip flask - tapered so flask can be slid up mold as depth of compacted sand deepens and
completely removed from the mold after compaction
B) Tight flask - one or two piece with guide pins that remain with the mold during pouring - our lab
C) Snap flask - are hinged so flask can be removed from the mold
D) Jacket - slipped over the sand mold for casting when the slip flask or snap flask has been removed
E) Muller - mixer that coats each individual sand grain with a thin layer of clay and water.
F) Aerator - fluffs sand before compacting to give even filling and compaction of mold

5. A former Met 221 student started a green sand foundry and was having sand quality problems. The
sand was mixed according to his memory, 88% silica sand, 9% water, and 3% clay. What is wrong
and what would you recommend to solve the problem.
A 3:1 clay to water ratio should be used, NOT water to clay. Try 9% clay and 3% water.

6. For compacting matchplate molds, why would you recommend:


A) a jolt-squeeze instead of a jolt-jolt or squeeze-squeeze machine (other than it just sounds better)?
drag is jolted which gives the best density at the pattern surface of the drag due to K.E. of sand. You
can't jolt the cope or it will damage the drag, therefore, best to squeeze the cope.
B) a slinger - excellent compaction in all locations due to use of K.E. to compact sand. Great for
larger molds

7. A) What is the typical water to clay ratio to provide optimum sand properties?
1:water to 3:clay
B) Explain in terms of the bonding, what happens if there is excess water?
if excess water, all of the clay is activated, but the additional water will be between the sand particles
and act as a lubricant
C) Explain in terms of the bonding, what happens if there is insufficient water?
if insufficient water, only part of the clay is activated. The excess clay is between the particles of
sand resulting in poor bonding and lower properties (strength and permeability).
8. In the box at the right, draw and identify a curve for density
each of the following properties. Define the property
below and why it is important. permeability
A) Compactability - Sand riddled into steel cylinder, hardness
leveled off, struck 3 times with weight, and % GCS
change in height is calculated. This is a quick and
dirty way of determining moisture content.
compactability
B) Permeability - measures how easily gasses can
pass through narrow voids between sand grains.
Important to preventing blowholes or porosity
from entrapped air in cavity and gases in metal.
C) Density - rough measure of permeability based on
lower density = higher percentage open pores
D) Mold hardness - spring loaded gauge used to
determine compacted sand hardness. Soft molds
can result in penetration and washing away of sand. % moisture
E) Green compressive strength - measures compressive stresses that sand can withstand. Often
more important than tension in mold materials.

9. In the Met 222 lab, several different types of sands were tested. The sieve analysis below shows the
weight % retained on each sieve. The last line is the multiplier for each sieve to calculate the AFS
fineness number.
Sand Sieve # 6 12 20 30 40 50 70 100 140 200 270 pan
F70 silica 0 0 0 0 0 8 40 35 13 3 1 0
olivine 0 0 2 70 25 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
washed silica 0 0 0 75 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
zircon 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 60 18 10 0
MULTIPLIER 3 5 10 20 30 40 50 70 100 140 200 300

A) What is the AFS Fineness number for each sand and the number of screens with 10%+?
F70 =66.9 Olivine =22.9 Washed silica=22.5 Zircon=113.6

B) Which sand should give the smoothest surface (least penetration) without other additives?
zircon would be the smoothest because it is the finest

C) Which sand should help avoid rat-tails or scabs? Why?


olivine the best - no phase changes and large particles

D) Which sand should help improve the permeability?


olivine or washed silica (cheaper way)

10. In sand selection why might you select::


A) round particles? - better permeability, takes less binder because less A/V

B) angular particles? - better green strength due to interlocking

11. What causes the following defects and how can you prevent them:
A) rat-tails, buckles and scabs - sand expansion defects due to silica next to mold cavity going
through phase change, expanding, and failing. Use angular sand to slide easier, clay saturation,
sands that don't go through phase changes, cellulose
B) sand penetration - too high pouring temperature or high pressure which increase fluidity of metal.
Could be made worse by coarse round sand grains with narrow distribution. Improve by adding
carbonaceous materials providing reducing atmosphere and a gas film during pouring
preventing oxidation and reducing penetration (burn-in). It also fills in the voids at the
mold/metal interface improving the surface finish. Also, certain fine grained materials, such as
silica flour, may be added in amounts up to 30%. The silica flour fills in the voids between the
sand grains producing a nice smooth surface. However, gas defects and sand expansion defects
are now a problem as well as more binder is required.

C) hot tears - occur because mold is too strong. They occur in casting alloys that tend to have long
freezing ranges. During solidification, the metal tries to contract but cannot because the mold is
too strong. High stresses develop at the corners while the metal at the corner is still partly
liquid. When the stress is high enough, the casting cracks. One of the problems that lead to hot
tears is lack of collapsibility. Collapsibility refers to how easily the sand breaks down and
crumbles when the casting is poured, cooled, and is ready to be shaken out. One helpful sand
additive that can improve collapsibility and minimize hot tears is cellulose. Also clay saturation
or opposite -- low clay (for low GCS).

D) blows - occur due to large amounts of gas, either trapped or evolved, that produces voids,
normally at the cope surface of the casting. Some of the major factors that may contribute to or
may alleviate blows include:

low permeability sands, due to angular sand grains, fine size, wide distribution of sand sizes,
presence of certain fine grained sand additives such as silica flour, or over-compaction, prevent
the escape of mold gases and lead to more likelihood of blows.

excessive evolved gas, due to high moisture contents in the sand (which also reduces
permeability) or excessive amounts of volatiles such as cellulose, increase the chances for blows.

trapped mold air that was in the mold cavity prior to pouring but, due to low permeability, was
unable to escape. Cutting vents at problem locations to permit this air to escape may be helpful
in many instances.

E) erosion - which also results in sand inclusions when the sand is of low strength and hardness or a
poor gating system allows for areas of erosion

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