Ceramic Sand has good flowability, high refractoriness. It can avoid many defects such as veins, sand burn-on, steel penetration which always caused by using quartz sand as Ceramic sand for RCS. Ceramic Sand Replace Quartz Sand is a very goods way for motor engine part foundry.
But for most engine part foundry manufacturers, it’s not easy to get a clue how to replace quartz sand with resin-coated sand. It had to considering the resin removal equipment. In the meantime, it has to get a new percentage of added resins. Also most importantly, get an updated cost for each ton of castings.
With some experience in auto parts from our customer in local who make motor cylinder, there are two possible solutions for Ceramic Sand Replace Quartz Sand:
No need to change the foundry method
If users adopting phenolic resin and adopting no-baked foundry technology, they can replace silica sand with ceramic sand directly. It can remove resin with a grinding process to remove the resin physically.
In the meantime, there are two methods to Ceramic Sand Replace Quartz Sand:
a Replace step by step
Only add ceramic sand every time when it needs to add new sand. Ceramic Foundry sand can be mixed with silica sand. The percentage of ceramic sand will higher and higher while silica sand consuming. The resin adding quantity should be reduced to about 80% of before. Then lower and lower.
b. Replace at one time
Replace at one time by using 100% ceramic sand from the beginning. The resin adding qty should be reduced as well. Some users reduce it to 75-50% of the weight with silica sand. It depends on the tech of users.
Notice it ask for a high weight of hanging because ceramic sand is heavier than silica sand. The grit size could be the same as silica sand. The sand can be recycle used by 10-20 times. The effect of casting will be better and better.
Adopting shell molding foundry method
The method needs to get a recycle equipment line. There are a lot of sand recycling lines available in the market. That foundry tech is shell molding instead of no-bake sand casting. The resin with it always goes Epoxy resin.
In this removing process, it’s a chemical removal process by make resin steaming. It also has to get a shooting machine to shot sand to mold.
In the beginning, it has to estimate how many tons of sand needed for the production capacity.
For example, the initial quantity of ceramic foundry sand 1200-1400 Tons. Afterward, consume more than 98 Tons of new sand/each month.
With this solution, it also has to reduce the consumption quantity of resin by at least 1/3. It asks workers to obey the operation rules such as collect used sand properly.
In total, the investment will be higher with the second method; it’s easier to adopt the first one. But no matter which one, it will reduce the long-term running cost. The ceramic sand is very easy to shake off and avoiding sand stick, it will reduce a lot of labor cost on cleaning sand and surface treatment on castings. It can also reduce the defect rate.