Sand Mould Design for Casting an Aluminium Pot-A Basic Procedure of Supplementing Artisanal Practices

Abstract

Artisanal green sand casting of aluminum pots is a notable flourishing business in many urban areas of west and central Africa but seen to be typified by labor-intensive and subjective control of a large number of variables to successfully cast. Correct mold designs with in-flow and cooling rates of molten aluminum are fundamental in reducing labor and defects in the castings. The paper presents sand mold design for casting 30litre-capacity cylindrical aluminum pot of internal diameter 314.7mm, depth 386mm, and wall thickness 4mm with  handling lugs alongside its cover using unpressurized gating system ratio of 1:3:3. The design provides suitable specifications of the ladle position, mass and pouring time and in-flow rate of molten aluminum, layout for the mold components, means of compensating process cooling shrinkages of aluminum during solidification, patterns for the castings, and molding box. The motive behind the paper was to emphasize and exemplify the use of basic engineering design procedure for supplementing artisanal green sand molding practices for improving consistency and productivity, and minimizing laboriousness and casing defects with improved profitability in the business.