Foundries clean up their act with combination blasting

Asco Foundries clean up their act with combination blasting

20.01.2016Editor: Briggette Jaya

Germany – Efficient cleaning of moulds in foundries has long been problematic due to stubborn base coatings. But now a chemical manufacturer and a blasting technology firm are combining their expertise in coatings and combination dry ice blasting to find a solution.

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Hüttens-Albertus' Product Manager Klussmann and Asco Area Sales Manager Hinze look forward to being able to offer customers a complete package consisting of application engineering and optimised coating.
(Source: Asco)

Hüttenes-Albertus is an international manufacturer of chemical products for use in coremaking and mouldmaking processes in foundries. The company has recently established a partnership with blasting technology specialists Asco Carbon Dioxide Ltd to investigate systems for the removal of mould coatings using dry ice and combination blasting.

Gallery

Common test runs are now used to define the optimal blasting parameters for most efficient removal of the newly developed coating structure with the Ascojet Combi blaster 1708.

Ascojet Combi blaster 1708 – multifunctional applicable thanks to the optimal combination of gentle cleaning with dry ice pellets and the additional abrasive effect of a carefully selected additive.

The left casting shows the yellowish coating which was partially removed with combination blasting (metallic silvery area). One half each of the right casting was cleaned with pure dry ice blasting (dark area) or combination blasting (bright area).

Foundry operations greatly rely on correct mould and tool cleaning. This is especially true for moulds and core boxes since an efficient cleaning process does not only increase quality but also boosts productivity and lowers costs. After speaking to specialists at a number of foundries, both companies realised that the removal of mould coatings still presents a problem. At the moment, heavy metal casting foundries need to remove the mould´s finishing coating several times a day. In addition, a regular removal of the base coating and an occasional roughening of moulds is required, the latter playing an important part in the adhesion of coatings. The removal of the finishing coating is mostly unproblematic and can be done efficiently with pure dry ice blasting, a common practice in the foundry industry. However, when it comes to the removal of the base coating and roughening process, pure dry ice blasting is of limited use, as the procedure is lengthy and mostly doesn’t achieve the desired effect. Pure abrasive blasting with sand or glass beads has been found to be too aggressive and damages the surface of the moulds. It also causes high secondary pollution.

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