CORE, TYPES, REQUIREMENTS, BINDERS 2/03/2021

Casting is the process of producing metal/ alloy component parts of desired shapes by
pouring the molten metal / alloy into a prepared mold (of that shape) and then allowing the
metal/alloy to cool and solidify.
The solidified piece of metal/alloy is known as casting. Casting is the basic process, we must
need to improve the quality of sand and sand muller improves this quality. A core is
essentially a body of materials which forms components of the mold. It possesses
sufficient strength to be handled as an independent unit.Core is an obstruction which
when positioned in the mold, naturally does not permit the molten metal to fill up the
space occupied by the core. In this way a core produces hollow casting. Cores are
required to create the recesses, undercuts and interior cavities that are often apart of
castings. Cores are employed as inserts in mould to form design features that are
otherwise extremely difficult to produce by simple moulding.
The dry silica sand is used as a basic refractory material for pre-preparing core .This sand
withstands for high temperature of metal poured in the mould.

1. Accessing the performance of binders on core strength in metal

Composition of core properties shows that the core hardness/strength is affected by the
nature of core treatment before, during and after baking.
2. Green sand dilution by new and core

In 1924, the Ford automobile company set a record by producing 1 million cars, in the
process consuming one-third of the total casting production in the U.S. As the
automobile industry grew the need for increased casting efficiency grew. The increasing
demand for castings in the growing car and machine building industry during and after World
War I and World War II, stimulated new inventions in mechanization and later automation of
the sand casting process technology. There was not one bottleneck to faster casting
production but rather several. Improvements were made in molding speed, molding
sand preparation, sand mixing, core manufacturing processes, and the slow metal melting
rate in cupola furnaces. In 1912, the sand slinger was invented by the American company
Beardsley & Piper. In 1912, the first sand mixer with individually mounted revolving
plows was marketed by the Simpson Company.
. In 1918, the first fully automated foundry for fabricating hand grenades for the U.S.
Army went into production. In the 1930s the first high-frequency coreless electric
furnace was installed in the U.S. In 1943, ductile iron was invented by adding
magnesium to the widely used grey iron. In 1940, thermal sand reclamation was
applied for molding and core sands. In 1952, the "D-process" was developed for
making shell molds with fine, pre-coated sand. In 1953, the hotbox core sand process in
which the cores are thermally cured was invented. In 1954, a new core binder—water
glass (sodium silicate) hardened with CO2 from the ambient air, came into use.

III. CORE
Types of core
1 According to the state or condition of core
A . Green sand core
Green sand cores are formed by pattern itself.
 A green sand core is a part of the mold
 A green sand core is made out of the same sand from which the rest of mold has
been made i.e
molding steel.
B. Dry Sand cores
 Dry sand cores, unlike green sand cores are not produced as a part of the sand.
 Dry sand cores are made separately and independent of that mold
 A dry sand core is made up of core sand which differs very much from the sand out
of which the
mold is constructed.
2. According to the nature of core materials employed:
A Oil bonded cores
 Conventional sand cores are produced by mixing silica sand with a small percentage
of linseed sand.
B. Resin – bonded cores
 Phenol resin bonded sand is rammed in a core box
 The core is removed from the core box and baked in a core oven at 375 to 450 f to
harden the core
C . Shell cores
 Shell cores can be made manually or on machines.
 The procedure of making shell cores is as follows:
 The core box is heated to temperature of the order of 400 to 600 F.
i. Sand mixed with about 2 to 5 % thermosetting resin of phenolic type is either dumped
or blown into
the preheated metal core box.
ii. Where sand blowing is employed, it is preferred to use resin precoated sand to avoid
resin segregation.
iii. The resin is allowed to melt to the specified thickness.
iv. The resin gets cured.
v. The excess sand is dumped and removed.
vi. The hardened core is extracted from the core box.
vii. Cores thus produced needs no further baking.
viii. Shell core posses very smooth surface (3125 micro mm root mean square) and close
tolerance. (+_
0.003 mm/mm).
ix. Shell core making process can be mechanized and several core making machines are
commercially
available.
x. High permeability is achieved in shell core making.
xi. Shell cores can easily stored for future use.
xii. Shell cores are costly as compared to cores produced by other methods.
D. Sodium silicate – CO2 cores
 These cores use a core material consisting of clean, dry sand mixed with a solution of
sodium silicate.
 The sand mixture is rammed into the core box.
 The rammed sand while it is in the core box is gassed for several seconds with CO2 gas.
As results a
silica gel forms which binds sand grains into a strong solid form.Na2SiO3+CO2 –
Na2CO3+SiO2
(silica sand)
 Cores thus produced usually need no baking.
 Cores thus formed possess more strength than the oil /resin bonded cores.
 Unhardened cores are not handled so that there is no chance of braking or sagging
of cores.
 Core dryer is not required.
 Core formed by CO2 process are used in the production of cast iron, steel,
aluminum and copper base
alloy castings.
 The used sand mixture however cannot be recovered and reused.
3 According to the type of core hardening process employed
A . Hot box process
B. The cold set process
C . Castable sand process
Cores thus made posses short bench life.
D Oil no-bake process

4 According to the Shape and Position of the Core

A Horizontal Core B Vertical Core
C Hanging or Cover Core D Drop or Stop off Core
E. Balanced Core F Ram Up Core G Kiss Core

IV. CORE APPLICATIONS

1. Core and core forms greatly increase the versatility of molding and casting operations.

2. Before being used for forming recesses and holes in the castings, cores are also employed:
3. As a strainer, gates and pouring cups.
4. As riser core.
5. For making molds.
6. As core mold in centrifugal casting process.

V CORE BOX
Types of core boxes

1. Half core box.

2. Slab or dump core box.
3. Split core box.
4. Left and right hand core box.
5. Strickle core box

Setting of Cores
 Core setting means placing cores in the mold
 In order to obtain correct cavities in the castings the cores should be accurately
positioned in the
molds.
 Cores in the moulds should be firmly secured so that they can withstand the
buoyancy effect of
the being poured molten metal.
 Small cores are set in the moulds by hand whereas big cores may required a
crane for the
purpose.
VI SAND CORE
The forming of holes, internal cavities and other internal surface of casting depends on cores.
Therefore core can be defined as that portion of mould which form the hallow interior of
casting or hole through the casting. Casting is produced in the foundry by pouring in molten
metal into a mould made to shape of the component required.
Castings play a vital part in all branches of engineering. The flexibility of casting production
techniques enable practically, all shapes to be produced. Though naturally, production cost is
important. In domestic application casting are used for stoves, gates, cookers, radiators, bath,
piping for main water supply and drainage. However the product of casting on a large
scale is a sophisticated and capital-intensive business. Cores are also used in shaping
external surface of cast product when a pattern is so shaped that
it forms a core as an integral part of the mould such a core is known as green sand core.

Requirements of Core
There are seven requirements for core:
a. In the green condition there must be adequate strength for handling.
b. Permeability must be very high to allow for the escape of gases.
c. As the casting or molding cools the core must be weak enough to break down as
the material shrinks. Moreover, they must be easy to remove during shakeout.
d. Good refractoriness is required as the core is usually surrounded by hot metal
during casting or
molding.
e. A smooth surface finish.

f. Binders
Special binders are introduced into core sands to add strength. The oldest binder was
vegetable oil, however now synthetic oil is used, in conjunction with cereal or clay. The
core is then baked in a convection oven between 200 and 250 °C (392 and 482 °F).
The heat causes the binder to cross-link or polymerize. While this process is simple, the
dimensional accuracy is low.

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