Properties of sodium silicate bonded sand hardened by microwave heating

Abstract

The sodium silicate bonded sand hardened by microwave heating has many advantages,such as low sodium silicate adding quantity,fast hardening speed,high room temperature strength,good collapsibility and certain surface stability. However,it has big moisture absorbability in the air,which would lead to the compression strength and the surface stability of the sand molds being sharply reduced. In this study,the moisture absorbability of the sodium silicate bonded sand hardened by microwave heating in different humidity conditions and the effect factors were investigated. Meanwhile,the reasons for the big moisture absorbability of the sand were analyzed.Some measures to overcome the problems of high moisture absorbability,bad surface stability and sharply reducing strength in the air were discussed. The results of this study establish the foundation of green and clean foundry technology based on the microwave heating hardening sodium silicate sand process.