A method for recovery of moulding sand from a foundry sand mixture, which includes at least one proportion of moulding material fragments or loose moulding material grains, which accumulates when a cast part is demoulded from a casting mould as a result of the destruction of casting cores which have been formed from the moulding sand and an inorganic binder. The method includes: a) mixing the foundry sand mixture with cleaning water to form a slurry in order to dissolve the inorganic binder residues contained in the foundry sand mixture and optionally present additives from the moulding sand and to rinse them from the foundry sand mixture, and b) separating the cleaning water contaminated with the inorganic binder residues from the moulding sand contained in the slurry, wherein the process temperature of the slurry formed in step a) is 50 to 200° C.

An apparatus and a method for cleaning sand used at a foundry, wherein sand to be cleaned is screened by a screening apparatus. The screened sand and at least one liquid mixture is fed into an abrasive apparatus. After that, the screened sand is rubbed by the abrasive apparatus. The rubbed sand and at least one liquid mixture is added to a water separation screen for separating a water blend from the rubbed sand. Finally, the separated sand is transferred into an oven and cleaned thermally by rotating the separated sand in the heated oven.

A core quality estimation system that estimates quality of a core to be formed by filling a mold with kneaded sand produced by kneading in a kneading tank and heating the kneaded sand includes a computer that executes operations of acquiring mold temperature information of the mold, acquiring environmental information regarding a surrounding environment in which the core is formed, and estimating the quality of the core based on the mold temperature information and the environmental information.

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.

A fluid heating furnace is a fluid heating furnace for recycling core sand used for a core. The fluid heating furnace includes: a fluid tank in which the core sand is heated by flowing gas while the core sand is caused to flow by the flowing gas; and a gas discharge passage communicating with the fluid tank such that the flowing gas is discharged through the gas discharge passage. The gas discharge passage includes an inlet portion via which the core sand is put into the fluid tank through the gas discharge passage. In the gas discharge passage, the flowing gas discharged through the gas discharge passage heats the core sand put into the gas discharge passage from the inlet portion, and in the fluid tank, the core sand heated in the gas discharge passage is further heated.

The invention provides a method for the cost-effective, resource-saving and highly productive recovery of moulding sand (F) from a foundry sand mixture (G), which comprises at least one proportion (FAB) of moulding material fragments or loose moulding material grains, which accumulates when a cast part is demoulded from a casting mould as a result of the destruction of casting cores or moulded parts representing the cast part which have been formed from the moulding sand (F) and an inorganic binder and optionally one or a plurality of additives to set the properties of the moulding material, wherein the method comprises the work steps a) mixing the foundry sand mixture (G) with cleaning water (RW) to form a slurry (S) in order to dissolve the inorganic binder residues (AB) contained in the foundry sand mixture (G) and optionally present additives from the moulding sand (F) and to rinse them out of the foundry sand mixture (G),
and b) separating the cleaning water (RWK) contaminated with the inorganic binder residues (AB) from the moulding sand (F) contained in the slurry (S),
and wherein the process temperature of the slurry (S) formed from the cleaning water and the foundry sand mixture (G) (work step a)) is 50 to 200° C.

A green sand treatment equipment monitoring system that detects that the condition of green sand treatment equipment is deteriorating before the green sand treatment equipment fails, or detects that the quality of green sand treated by the green sand treatment equipment and kneaded sand produced from the green sand is deteriorating before it becomes clear that the green sand and the kneaded sand are defective products. The system including: an information collecting device that collects, in real time, data measured by equipment within green sand treatment equipment; and a diagnostic device that compares, in real time, the collected data with a control value, and displays a diagnosis result if the diagnostic device determines that the collected data has deviated from the control value.

A core manufacturing apparatus includes: a storage unit that stores core sand; a kneading vessel configured to be fed with the core sand; a kneading rod configured to knead the core sand; and a piston configured to eject the kneaded core sand. The kneading vessel is capable of transitioning between a horizontally lying state and a vertically standing state and configured to be fed with the core sand in the horizontally lying state. The piston is configured to eject the core sand downward and pack it into a mold with the kneading vessel in the vertically standing state. The storage unit includes a valve that opens and closes the feed port. The storage unit is coupled to the kneading vessel so as to be turnable around a second shaft and configured to maintain the same posture with the valve in contact with the feed port while the kneading vessel turns.

An object is to accurately estimate loss-on-ignition in a short time. A loss-on-ignition estimation apparatus includes at least one processor configured to carry out an estimation step, the estimation step including estimating the loss-on-ignition of foundry sand with use of a learned model constructed by means of machine learning. The learned model is configured to receive, as input, (1) sand weight data relating to a weight of the foundry sand detected in a calcination period and (2) at least one of (i) sand property data relating to one or more properties of the foundry sand, (ii) additive data relating to one or more additives added to the foundry sand, and (iii) calcination environment data relating to a calcination environment detected in the calcination period. The learned model is configured to generate, as output, an estimated loss-on-ignition of the foundry sand.

A cycle is repeatedly carried out, the cycle including: a material feeding step of feeding a material whose amount is larger than an amount that is needed to form a single mold; a mixing step; an ejection step; and a measurement step of measuring, once before or after the ejection step, an amount of foamed mixed sand contained in a mixing tank. The material at least partially is not fed in the material feeding step in the cycle in which the amount of the foamed mixed sand is not less than a first threshold.