International Journal of Advanced Engineering and Technology

Authors
Edoziuno FO, Oyibo AO, Nwaeju CC

Abstract
Efforts have variously been made to develop synthetic moulding sand for foundry mould production from locally sourced ingredients. This research investigates the suitability of using river Niger sand (Onitsha deposit) and Ukpor clay to compose moulding sand. Laboratory Foundry sand tests were carried out on American Foundrymen’s Society (AFS) standard test specimens (50mm diameter by 50mm height) prepared with a ridsdale laboratory sand rammer, to determine their moulding properties in both dry and green conditions. The results of chemical analysis of the sand and the clay samples indicated that the sand is of high silica content (89.9%) and the clay is rich in both silica and alumina contents (67.2% and 24.5%) which is an indication of their suitability for use in foundry mould production and other refractory applications. The result of sieve analysis for the sand deposit revealed a grain fineness number (GFN) of 40.01 and an average grain size of 421.70µm, which is within the range widely used in sandcasting. Over 99% bulk of the sieved sand was retained after few consecutive sieves, which confirms that the sand met AFS standard specification for foundry sand. The results of the moulding sand properties obtained compared favourably with the standard property range required for the sandcasting of various ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys.