Understanding Emission Characteristics of a Foundry Sand Binder

Abstract

Emissions from the casting process, labeled as hazardous air pollutants (HAP’s), can cause long-term health issues for foundry workers when emitted into the workplace environment. In North America, the widely used sand binder system is phenolic urethane to produce ferrous and non-ferrous cast products. Thermo-gravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry connected to the mass spectrometer provided a way to identify the emission of compounds and evaluate decomposition rate for the phenolic urethane binder. The experiment using the phenolic urethane discs was increased to1200oC at a rate of 10oC per minute under an oxidizing (oxygen), reducing (carbon monoxide) and neutral (nitrogen) atmosphere. Some of the major HAP’s identified were benzene, toluene, naphthalene, and xylene. The atmosphere had a tremendous effect on the emission rate and decomposition temperature, alluding present experimental techniques are unsatisfactory for replicating the actual mold atmosphere. This research presents opportunities for incorporating binder decomposition data into simulation software to model the mold atmosphere during the casting process.