Controlling the Curing Reaction of Furan Binders Used in Metal Casting

Casting is a fundamental technology that supports many industries. Metal casting parts are extensively used from machine tools to auto components. Typically, castings are made by pouring molten metal, heated to about 1,400°C, into a mold made of sand particles binding together with a binder.

Kao has a wide variety of facilities capable of reproducing the casting operations inside metal foundries, and we have used them for the development of furan resin, which are heat-resistant network polymers. Furan binder can get high mold strength and the used sand can be easily to reuse, but it has a need for mold productivity. Customer needs same bench life but quick cure binder for higher mold productivity.

To meet this challenge, we analyzed the curing reaction mechanism and developed new “curing control technology” that allows the first stage of the curing reaction to proceed slowly while dramatically accelerating the middle and final stages of curing. In this way we were able to shorten strip time from the pattern by one-half under same bench life.

Kao will contribute for efficient and high-quality of casting production by unique technical design of heat-resistant network polymers.