Microwave hardening of solid inorganic foundry binder

The drive for sustainable manufacturing worldwide has caused a renewed interest in inorganic sodium silicate binders. A solid variant of this, the solid hydrous silicate is also seen to further enable sustainable sand casting. Numerous studies have already shown very good results obtained with furnace hardened solid silicates. However, furnace heating is slow and heating large mold evenly is a challenge on its own. One potential solution to this challenge is the microwave hardening of solid silicates. In this study, the performance of microwave hardened solid foundry binder is investigated that encompasses different stages of sand casting starting from the pattern material, molding and the final cast. A range of mold aggregates and two different patterns were used for the microwave absorption test, and mold quality analysis was carried out using a microwave hardened solid inorganic foundry binder. Very promising mold strength results were obtained, and the relationship between microwave heating power and time on mold strength was also determined. Molding trial was conducted using different sands and in the end a casting trial was also conducted in these molds using ductile iron EN-GJS-600-3 and aluminum alloy AlSi10Mg.