Experimental Investigation of Effective Parameters on Gas Exhaust from the Mold in Lost Foam Casting Method

The impact of the viscosity of the coating, sand grade, and vibration time was investigated on the exhaust of the gaseous products in the lost-foam casting of an A356 aluminum alloy. In this regard, a foam stepwise model with five different thicknesses was used. Three coatings of different viscosities (15, 20, and 25 Pas.sec), three grades of sand (20, 50, 80 AFS), and different vibration times (60, 90, 120, and 180 sec) were considered in the study. To analyze these parameters, their impact on the defects, porosities, and the surface roughness was evaluated. The results showed that the most important defects to be mentioned include being unable to completely fill the mold cavity, the increased porosity in the casting as a result of the excessively thick coating, and the compression of the sand (which blocks the porosities in the mold) due to the wrong choice of refractory coating, sand grade, and vibration time. A coating with a viscosity of 20 Pas.sec, along with 50 AFS grade sand, and a vibration time of 60 sec yielded the best result in terms of defects, porosity (3.7 %) and surface roughness (18 µm).