Design and production of a novel sand materials strength testing machine for foundry applications

In the foundry, existing strength testing machines are used to measure only the maximum fracture strength of mould and core materials. With traditionally used methods, the loading history to ascertain deformation of the material is not available. In this paper, a novel moulding material strength testing machine was designed and built for both green sand and chemically-bonded sand materials.

This machine measures and presents the loading response as a force-displacement profile from which the mechanical properties of the moulding materials can be deduced. The system was interfaced to a computer with a commercial PC based-control and data acquisition software. The testing conditions and operations are specified in the user interface and the data acquisition is made according to specifications.

The force and displacements were calibrated to ensure consistency and reliability of the measurement data. The force was calibrated using an Amsler Hydraulic Press while the displacements were calibrated with and without loading using a displacement calibrator (Heidenhain Digitaler). The calibration results showed that the data obtained are stable and reliable and the machine can be used for the measurement of the strength of chemically-bonded sand materials.