A method of reusing core sand includes crushing a core used for casting into granules; heating the granules at a temperature of 300 C. to 550 C.; causing the heated granules to collide against each other such that water glass used as a binder detaches from the core sand; and blowing air into a mixture of the water glass and the core sand, which are detached from each other, such that the core sand is separated and collected from the mixture due to a difference in specific gravity between the water glass and the core sand.

A method of reusing core sand includes crushing a core used for casting into granules; heating the granules at a temperature of 300 C. to 550 C.; causing the heated granules to collide against each other such that water glass used as a binder detaches from the core sand; and blowing air into a mixture of the water glass and the core sand, which are detached from each other, such that the core sand is separated and collected from the mixture due to a difference in specific gravity between the water glass and the core sand.

The foundry sand binder supply apparatus of the present invention comprises a hopper for storing a binder therein, a binder transfer device for transferring the binder, a binder measuring and discharging device disposed beneath a distal end of the binder transfer device, and a binder supply amount control device. The binder measuring and discharging device comprises a measuring container for receiving the binder therein, a load cell for measuring the weight of the binder inside the measuring container, and a discharge device for discharging the binder from the measuring container. The binder supply amount control device is operable to control the discharge device to discharge the binder from the measuring container by a predetermined amount less than the whole amount of the binder inside the measuring container, and control the binder transfer device to supply the binder into the measuring container by the predetermined amount of the discharged binder.

A water supply and kneading system for green sand, including: a weighing hopper that stores green sand that has been weighed; a kneading machine that kneads the green sand and water; a sand loading means for releasing the green sand in the weighing hopper into the kneading machine, or shutting off the release; a water supply device that supplies water to the green sand in the kneading machine; a moisture sensor that includes a pair of electrodes and measures the moisture content of the green sand stored in the weighing hopper by measuring an electric potential difference between the electrodes; and a kneading control device that controls the amount of water supplied by the water supply device and controls the sand loading means on the basis of the output of the moisture sensor.

The present invention concerns an apparatus for treating and cooling foundry molding sand, comprising a mixing container and a mixing tool rotatable about a drive shaft, wherein there is provided an air feed for the feed of air into the container interior. To provide an improved apparatus with which a more uniform fluidized layer is produced as far as possible over the entire cross-section of the mixing container, wherein moreover the proportion of the solid particles entrained with the gas flow is to be reduced, it is proposed according to the invention that the mixing tool has at least two mixing vanes spaced from each other in the vertical direction and at least one mixing vane has a mixer blade with a surface which is inclined relative to the horizontal.

According to one embodiment a solid component mixing apparatus is provided that includes a mixing device, a first dosing device for supplying sand and a second dosing device for supplying a solid additive that are communicated with the mixing device. The mixing device includes a vertical mixing chamber with a rectangular cross-section, the contour of the chamber being formed by four side walls, such that two side walls opposite one another are wider than the other two walls. The chamber includes a first inlet communicated with the first dosing device and a second inlet communicated with the second dosing device, the second inlet being at a lower height than the first inlet, and the second inlet being arranged in one of the wider side walls of the chamber. Associated mixing methods are also provided.

A core forming device is equipped with a kneading tank in which raw materials of a core are kneaded, a raw material supply unit that supplies the raw materials to the kneading tank, a mold that accommodates a kneaded material including the raw materials kneaded in the kneading tank and that forms the core, a piston that injects the kneaded material into the mold, a position sensor that detects a position of the piston, and a control unit that controls a supply amount of the raw materials supplied to the kneading tank from the raw material supply unit. The control unit determines the supply amount of the raw materials based on a difference between the position of the piston upon completion of injection and a reference position of the piston.

A core blowing device comprises a hopper, a fluidizer, a shooting head, and a robotic arm fitting. The core blowing device is configured to removeably couple to a free end of a robotic arm and is configurable to implement a variety of core casting processes using different aggregate materials, binders, catalysts, and/or curing processes.

A kneaded sand property adjusting system including: a kneading device; a kneaded sand storage hopper that stores kneaded sand; a molding device that molds the sand conveyed from the sand storage hopper; a control device that controls water injection until a property of the sand meets a kneaded sand target property; and kneaded sand amount measuring instruments that measure the amount of sand stored in storage hopper, wherein the control device stores the batch number of each kneaded batch and the kneaded sand property measured at the time of kneading, calculates the batch number of the kneaded batch that corresponds to the molding sand being loaded into the molding device by the kneaded sand amount measuring instruments, associates the property of the molding sand with the property stored on by the batch number that was calculated, and corrects the target property on the basis of the values of the properties.

Provided is a decompression kneader capable of stabilizing a moisture content of resultant kneaded sand. The decompression kneader includes a kneader main body configured to knead casting sand and water, a decompression pump configured to reduce a pressure inside the kneader main body, a condenser configured to condense water vapor sucked by the decompression pump, a tank configured to store water condensed by the condenser, and a supply amount calculation apparatus configured to calculate an amount of water supplied from the tank to the kneader main body. The tank comprises a water gauge and a weighing scale, and the supply amount calculation apparatus estimates an amount of the casting sand contained in the tank based on measured values of the water gauge and the weighing scale and corrects the amount of the water supplied from the tank with reference to the amount of the casting sand.