EXPANDED PERLITE, EXPANDED VERMICULITE AND MICROSPHERES AS FILLERS IN NEW GENERATION PAPER PULP MIXTURES USED FOR CONTACT WITH LIQUID METAL

摘要

Liquid metal when filling sand casting mould while pouring it out from ladle at the first moment comes across the sprue/gate system of the mould the purpose of which is to transfer liquid metal and feed the mould recess. The materials presently used for the elements of the sprue/gate systems are based on ceramics or the mixtures based on paper pulp. In this study the use of alternative mineral additions such as expanded perlite, expanded vermiculite, and microspheres as the fillers to paper pulp acquired from waste-paper for the use for the elements of mould sprue/gate systems or also other applications for the contact with liquid metal are presented. Experimental mould tube shapes made on the basis of the paper pulp based mixture patented by the authors were poured over with liquid metal. For the comparison, ceramic shapes and commercially available cellulose shapes were investigated in the same way. In order to compare the crystallization processes, a measurement of the cooling off liquid metal was carried out for all the analysed tube samples. From the so obtained metal samples metallographic microsections were made to compare cast iron microstructures. The results obtained from the investigations carried out have shown that the patented paper pulp based mixture may well be applied as an alternative material used for the elements of the sprue/gate systems for disposable sand moulds.