What is Fused Ceramic Sand?
Fused ceramic sand is an artificial sand for foundry application, manufactured by spraying the melted calcined bauxite and making it crystallize into spherical sand. The manufacturing process can be roughly divided into four steps: calcination, electrofusion, granulation, and screening.
Grain size distribution of Fused Ceramic Sand
The size distribution of raw sand particles significantly affects the quality of castings. When coarse sand particles are used, the molten metal is easy to penetrate into the core sand particles and form a poor casting surface. The use of finer sand particles can produce a better and smoother casting surface, but it requires a higher amount of binder, which will reduce the permeability of the core and may cause porosity defects.
Fused ceramic sand has its own unique grading characteristics, and good sand mixing can make it non segregated and non stratified in the process of transportation and use. For the sand casting process using binder, it is an effective way to use multi sieve distribution to make smaller particles fill the gap between larger particles and inlay each other, increase the binder "connecting bridge", and then improve the core bonding strength.
The table below summarizes our experience in the application of Fused ceramic sand for more than 20 years, and the particle size requirements and distribution of Fused ceramic sand used in different casting processes:
Particle size requirements and distribution of Fused ceramic sand (usually)
Technology | AFS (common) | Distribution | Concentration |
Coated sand | 50-70 70-90 90-110 | 4 or 5 sieves | More than 85% |
Self-hardening sand (furan, alkali phenolic, PEP, etc.) | 30-65 | 4 or 5 sieves | More than 80% |
LFC | 10-20 20-30 | / | / |
Cold box / hot box | 40-60 | 4 or 5 sieves | More than 85% |
3D printing | Widely distributed according to use | 2 or 3 sieves | More than 90% |
Refractoriness of Fused ceramic sand and common foundry sand
In casting production, especially in the production of steel castings and large iron castings, the pouring temperature is high, and there are strong thermal, mechanical and chemical reactions between metal and mold. Therefore, the refractoriness of foundry sand is one of the most important indexes.
The refractoriness mainly depends on its mineral composition and particle size, and is largely affected by its low melting point impurities. Generally speaking, for the same kind of raw sand, the larger the particle size and the lower the impurity content, the higher the fire resistance.
The following table of refractoriness of foundry sand is a synthesis of relevant literature and measured data:
Refractoriness of foundry sand | |
Fused ceramic sand | ≥ 1800 ℃ |
Silica sand (SiO2 content 98%) | 1680 ℃ |
Chromite ore | 1700~1800 ℃ |
Lunar sand Cl | ≥ 1860 ℃ |
Cerabeads | 1825 ℃ |
Zircon quartz | ≥ 1870 ℃ |
Forsterite sand | 1910 ℃ |
Iron olivine sand | 1700~1800 ℃ |
Ceramsite sand | ≥ 1750 ℃ |
Fused ceramic sand Manufacturer
Sanmenxia Qiangxin Foundry Material Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in the manufacture and sale of the new, energy-saving and environmental- friendly fused ceramic sand. The products of our company are widely used in both domestic and international foundry and metallurgical industry. Contact: sales@fusedcemamicsand.com