Investigation of the Results of Combined Reclamation on the Particular Stages of Grain Matrix Recovery

In this article, there were presented the results of research on combined mechanical and thermal regeneration of waste moulding sand with furfuryl resin originated from one of national foundries manufacturing aluminium alloys castings. Attempts of mechanical reclamation were led on the REGMAS reclaimer enabling to realize preliminary and primary reclamation with use of two modes of mechanical interactions on waste moulding sand. In the first attempt the reclaimer worked without any additional regenerating elements, and as the second solution, the reclaimer operated with additional crushing and abrasive elements to increase the result of primary reclamation. Thermal reclamation was led in the prototypic thermal reclaimer, enabling to fully control the process of grain matrix recovery. As a result of completed investigations the small efficiency of mechanical reclamation was determined. However, use of combined regeneration allowed for obtaining grain matrix of high purity. Thermal regeneration was conducted in prototypic thermal reclaimer. Evaluation of reclaim (reclaimed material) quality was carried out in the way of iginition losses and grain-size analysis, surface morphology and also by executing of strength testing of moulding sand prepared on obtained grain matrix for the particular reclamation operations.