Archives of Foundry Engineering

Abstract

Due to the observed increase in the amount of waste in landfills, there has been an increase in the demand for products made of biomaterials and the composition of biomaterials with petroleum-derived materials. The problem of waste disposal/management also applies to waste from the casting production process with the use of disposable casting moulds made with the use of organic binders (resins), as well as residues from the process of regeneration of moulding sands. A perspective solution is to add a biodegradable component to the moulding/core sand. The authors proposed the use of polycaprolactone (PCL), a polymer from the group of aliphatic polyesters, as an additive to a casting resin commonly used in practice. As part of this study, the effect of PCL addition on the (bio) degradation of dust obtained after the process of mechanical regeneration of moulding sands with organic binders was determined. The (bio) degradation process was studied in the environment reflecting the actual environmental conditions. As part of the article, dust samples before and after the duration of the (bio) degradation process were tested for weight loss by thermogravimetry (TG) and for losses on ignition (LOI).