We have done our college project on mould sands. Above PPT presentation is my first review on it.

1. COMPARITIVE STUDIES ON
PROPERTIES OF MOULD
SANDS OF DIFFERENT MESH
SIZES.
By
N.C.Umesh
1011407017

2. ABSTRACT
• Moulding sands basically silica sand, river bed sand, loam sand etc,. all basically contain
natural binder ‘clay’ in appreciate value. For moulding operational properties different
parameters are varied like moisture content, binder weight percentage, water content
(volume percentage) etc.
• The main objective of investigation is to study the effect on properties of mould sands of
different clay content under varied mesh sizes which further helps in understanding the
Compactaibility, Green strength, permeability. Higher the green strength higher will be the
resistance to wear and external pressure. Increase in permeability number helps to
venting out evolved gases and steam.
• Investigation results shows that variation of green strength, permeability and compability
of mould sand with clay content, moisture, binder percentage.

3. IDEOLOGY
• We are been discussing about different concept of subjects about project.
• We selected this idea based on reference journal “ Effect of Moisture Content on the
Moulding Properties of River Niger Sand Using Tudun-Wada Clay as a Binder.”
• This journal was published under Matthew Sunday, Sunday Albert Lawal and
Abdul Rahman in Federal University of Technology Minna, Nigeria.
• We extracted this idea and try to redefined it into “COMPARTIVE STUDIES ON
PROPERTIES OF MOULD SANDS OF DIFFERENT MESH SIZES”
• This is reference journal no. AU J.T. 13(3): 170-174 (Jan. 2010).

4. INTRODUCTION
• Sand is principal moulding material in the foundry shop where it is used for all types of
casting, irrespective of whether the cast material is ferrous or non-ferrous.
• Sand grains are heat resistant material with a particle size above 0.02 mm, has the main
volume weight apportionment in a mixture.
• It forms a material skeleton of moulds and cores, therefore angularity and granulometry of
particles belong among its most important properties aside from the activity of grain
surfaces.
• Angularity and granulometry of particles are decisive for volume weight, porosity and
ensuing permeability and penetrability of a mixture, thermal conductivity of a mixture and
affect even strength of moulds and cores to a large extent.

5. CONTINUED
• Foundry sands or mould sands are used to make mould cavity for castings.
• Foundry sand consist primarily of clean, uniformly sized high proportion of quality silica
and its bonding quality will depend on the presence of some kind of clay material or lake
sand that is bonded to form moulds for ferrous (iron and steel) and non-ferrous (copper,
aluminium, brass etc) metal casting.
• Binders are added to give cohesion to moulding sands and it provide strength to the
moulding sand and enable it to retain its shape as moulding cavity. The principal mineral
constituent of clays is kaolinite and bentonite.
• When is binder dissolved in free water, it forms a suspension called colloidal solution.

6. MATERIAL REQUIRED
• Green sand
 4 kg of sand.
 Mostly silica content (79-81%), clay content (12%),remaing dirt, small stones .
• Synthetic sand
 6-7 kg of sand
 v,
• River sand
 10 kg of sand
 Mostly silica (84-86%), clay content (6%), moisture(3-4%), stones and quartz.

7. • Binder
 The bonding agent used as an additive to mold or core sand to impart strength .
 Most commonly used binders are
1. Kaolinite
2. Bentonite
 Here we used bentonite as binder
 Bentonite as 2 types
a) Western bentonite (sodium ion based)
b) Southern bentonite (calcium ion based)
 We used western bentonite mostly as it provide good erosion and much higher
strength.
• Water
 To add moisture content in mould sand, we used water(normal grade).

8. SPECIMEN PREPARATION
• We initiated sand specimen in 2 steps
1. Sieve analysis
2. Mould preparation.
 Sieve analysis :
o Different mesh sizes stacks are arrange in from top bottom in descending order.
o 100- 150 g of air dried sand are pored in top sieve and vibrations are given to
complete stack.
o After 10 mins, we will retained sand in present in required mesh sizes.(425,300,212
microns).
o In similar way, different mesh sizes sands are collected in required quantity.( 1kg
approx.)

9. CONTINUED…..
 Mould preparation
o Sized sand , binder and water are mixed thoroughly with measured weight percentage
ratio.
o In Sand Rammer, prepare sand mixture are filled in specimen tube which is close at
one side with pedestal cup.
o By moving crankle quickly, we rammed the sand in specimen tube.
o After ramming, using specimen pusher we removed the mould specimen .
o To get standard weight height ratio, weight of sand is balanced.
o Maximum ramming for each mould is 3-4.
o The procedure is repeated with various mesh size sands of varied compositions.

10. Water in
total(%)
water
ml
Binder in
total(%)
Binder
gms
sand in
total(%)
sand
gms
1 6.92 25 9.97 36 83.11 300
2 8.10 30 10.8 40 81.1 300
3 10.32 40 12.37 40 77.31 300
Composition analysis

11. • Above diagram, shows various composition of sand mould preparation.
• Thus green strength: compression strength and shear strength and permeability are
varied based on composition of mixture.
• Based on mesh sizes and green strength, compactablity of mould changes.
• Initial clay content of sand play major role in all properties and require binder content.
Overview results