한국주조공학회

The full mould casting process in one of the newly developed techniques which has many advantages. Unbonded sand mould has been prepared for the major mould and CO^2 gas mould has been used occasionally for comparison. Patterns were built up with expanded polystyrene and coated with three different materials. Silica, graphite and zircon were used for the coating layer. The effects on fluidity and temperature loss of molten metals were investigated. The molten metals were Al-5% Si alloy, Cu-30% Zn alloy and gray iron of approximately 4.0% of carbon equivalent. Experimental variables were runner section area, superheat, sprue height, coating materials, coating thickness and apparent density of EPS pattern. The effects of coating materials on fluidity and temperature loss of the molten metals during transient pouring are summarized as follows : As runner section area, superheat and sprue height increased, fluidity increased. Temperature loss decreased as runner section area and sprue height increased. However, reversed effects were observed in the case of superheat increment. The coating materials decreased the fluidity of each alloy in the order of silica, graphite and zircon. Zircon brought to the highest temperature loss among the coating materials used. The fluidity increased in the order gray iron, Cu-30% Zn and Al-5% Si alloy while temperature loss in the reverse order. Especially in case of reduced pressure process, the fluidity was increased apparently. Al-5% Si alloy showed the lowest temperature loss among the alloys. The increment of the apparent density of EPS pattern resulted in the fluidity decrease and temperature loss increase. The relation between fluidity and temperature loss of each alloy can be expressed by the following equation within the coating thickness limit of 0.5-1.5㎜.