The green sand molding process has been used in the foundry industry for many years! The challenge of this proven foundry methodology is to meet the future requirements of the modern foundries that have to produce a product that meets or exceeds the requirements of the casting consumer. Tomorrow's casting consumer is requiring improved dimensional tolerances to the cast part, at a reduced cost, and just in time delivery, to minimize inventory. Simultaneously, the foundry that is producing the cast part is required to improve casting quality, increase production to meet the casting consumer requirements, improve working conditions in the foundry, meet or exceed current and future environmental regulations, and an overall reduction in the cost of metal castings produced. A metal casting facility is made up of various functional areas; these include “melting” capability, molding operation (green sand or other processes), core making, and various mechanical methodologies to separate the metal cast part from the molding media. Simply referred to as “Pouring, Molding, Cooling, and Shakeout” in a foundry. This publication will focus primarily on the molding process to produce a cast part. A traditional molding media for the metal casting process is made up of the aggregate (in most foundries Silica Sand); bentonite is utilized as the “perfect inorganic binder”, and in addition to the bentonite specifically designed/selected organic/inorganic additives. Since the topic of this publication is “Future Performance Expectations for Foundry Bentonite”, the selection of the aggregate will not be reviewed in this discussion. However, the consideration and selection of the bentonite/ selected additives will be discussed.
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