Sugar Industry Fly Ash: an Additive for Molding Sand
to Make Aluminium Castings¹

P. Karunakaran^a,*, C. Jegadheesan^b,**, P. Dhanapal^c,***, and P. Sengottuvel^d,****

^aDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Erode Sengunthar Engineering College, Erode-638057, Tamil Nadu, India

^bDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Chettinad College of Engineering and Technology,
Karur-639114, Tamil Nadu, India

^cDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Karpagam Institute of Technology, Coimbatore-641105, Tamil Nadu, India

^dDepartment of Mechatronics Engineering, Bharath University, Chennai-600073, Tamil Nadu, India

*e-mail: karankaruna@yahoo.com,

**e-mail: cjega1987@gmail.com,

***e-mail: p.dhanapal@rediffmail.com,

****e-mail: sengottuvel@yahoo.com

Abstract—X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive
spectroscopy studies were performed with molding sand and sugar industry fly ash to evaluate and compare
their physical properties. We noted that several physical properties of sugar industry fly ash and molding sand
were similar. We then tested the permeability, green compression strength and dry compression strength of var-
ious compositions of sugar industry fly ash and bentonite to explore their potential as an alternative to molding
sand, thereby reducing the dependency on the latter, as well as to suggest an effective way for disposal of fly
ash from sugar industry. We also found that quality aluminium castings could be produced using fly ash, which
effectively replaced 24% of molding sand in the foundry, thereby reducing the cost of production and increasing
the surface finish of castings.

Keywords: molding sand, permeability, fly ash, binder, casting

DOI: 10.3103/S1067821214030079

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