A lot of mixed clay-resin waste sand from large-scale iron foundries is discharged every day; so mixed waste sand reclamation in low cost and high quality has a great realistic significance. In the study to investigate the possibility of reusing two types of waste foundry sands, resin bonded sand and clay bonded sand which came from a Chinese casting factory, a new low-cost reclamation method of the mixed foundry waste sand based on the wet-thermal composite reclamation was proposed. The waste resin bonded sand was first reclaimed by a thermal method and the waste clay bonded sand was reclaimed by a wet method. Then, hot thermal reclaimed sand and the dehydrated wet reclaimed sand were mixed in certain proportions so that the hot thermal reclaimed sand dried the wet reclaimed sand leaving some water. The thermal reclamation efficiency of the waste resin bonded sand was researched at different heat levels. The optimized wet reclamation process of the waste clay bonded sand was achieved by investigating the effects of wet reclamation times, sand-water ratio and pH value on the reclaimed sand characteristics. The composite reclamation cost also was calculated. The research results showed that the properties of the mixed reclaimed sand can satisfy the application requirements of foundries; in which the temperature of the thermal reclamation waste resin bonded sand needs to be about 800 oC, the number of cycles of wet reclamation waste clay bonded sand should reach four to five, the optimal sand-water ratio of wet reclamation is around 1:1.5, and the pH value should be adjusted by adding acid. The mass ratio of hot thermal reclaimed sand to dehydrated wet reclaimed sand is about 1:2.5, and the composite reclaimed sand cost is around 100 yuan RMB per ton.
Lost foam casting(LFC)technology has been widely applied to cast iron and cast steel.However,the development of LFC for Al and Mg alloys was relatively slower than that for cast iron and cast steel.The application of LFC to Al and Mg alloys needs more effort,especially in China.In this paper,the development history of LFC is reviewed,and the application situations of LFC to Al and Mg alloys are mainly discussed.Meanwhile,the key problems of LFC for Al and Mg alloys are also pointed out.Finally,the prospects for LFC technology are discussed,and some special new LFC technologies are introduced for casting Al and Mg alloys.In future,the development trends of green LFC technology mainly focus on the special new LFC methods,metal material,coating,heat treatment,new foam materials as well as purification technology of tail gas,etc.
