Sustainable Foundry Solutions: The New Inorganic Core Production System
A new inorganic core production system has been developed, representing an innovative and sustainable solution that is attracting growing interest among core makers and foundries. Its use has already enabled several production facilities to improve their working environments, significantly reducing emissions and odors. Recent technological developments have enabled the development of a system with improved mechanical performance and longer shelf life. This solution is attracting interest not only from aluminum chill casting foundries, but also from cast iron and non-ferrous alloy foundries and those new to 3D printing.
Inorganic Foundry System: High Mechanical Characteristics and Sustainability
The new generation of the innovative inorganic foundry system has enabled significant technological advances, enhancing mechanical performance while maintaining its status as one of the most sustainable core forming systems on the market, with unchanged usage rates.
Among the most significant advantages is its superior stripping capacity: the new system's characteristics reduce stripping times, responding to a specific need expressed by foundries using the standard inorganic system.
Sustainable Foundry Cores for Iron Casting
The development of sustainable foundry cores for iron casting represents one of the most significant achievements of the research and innovation process related to the inorganic system. Thanks to a long development process conducted in collaboration with operators in the brake disc industry, solid knowledge and expertise have been developed for iron casting, reaching the mass production stage.
Research has not stopped with the achievement of a high-performance system: work to optimize individual components continues with the goal of developing an increasingly cost-competitive solution. Although the final goal has not yet been fully achieved, ongoing activities are concretely leading to the expected results, contributing to the development of increasingly advanced sustainable foundry solutions.
Reducing Emissions in the Foundry: Applications for Non-Ferrous Alloys
For non-ferrous alloys, collaboration with operators specializing in brass casting has enabled significant results to be achieved in the molding and casting phases. The main initial critical issues concerned the stripping phase, in particular due to the high casting temperatures.
A two-component system optimization effort was then initiated, focused on improving core removal after casting cooling. The development and integration of a specific additive significantly improved overall performance, eliminating the last remaining critical issue and enabling a fully reliable production process. This process is part of the broader goal of reducing foundry emissions through the adoption of inorganic binders in place of traditional organic ones.
Additive manufacturing: odorless and fume-free cores
A further strategic development concerns the Additive Manufacturing market, for which the inorganic system offers a high-performance solution for the production of odorless and fume-free cores. The system is already being used on specific 3D machines for the mass production of complex cores, opening up new application prospects in quality-critical sectors such as the automotive industry.
The evolution toward inorganic foundry systems for additive manufacturing represents a concrete step toward a more sustainable manufacturing future, where reduced environmental impact is combined with high mechanical performance and reliable production processes.
Source: In Fonderia – Il magazine dell’industria fusoria italiana