On Monday 6th September the West Midlands Branch and a total of 36 attendees from across the UK and the internet, were treated to a well-presented, interesting and professional technical lecture / webinar delivered by the branch, the first of the new season.
The lecture ‘Furan No Bake Technology the continuing story’ was kindly presented by Mr. Ray Higgins of Eurotek Foundry Products Ltd, ably assisted by Neil Yoxen of FMS (Foundry Machinery and Spares Ltd). The talk demonstrated deep levels of experience and knowledge from these two experts.
Mr Higgins provided a clear overview of the continuing applications of the Furan bonding process; he demonstrated how the high strength and high temperature working ranges of this system has allowed it to develop to continue to meet the high and changing demands of the modern casting industry, representing somewhat of a comeback for this binder system from its status in the 1980’s.
A talk on foundry moulding processes would not be complete without mentioning the process controls that need to be in place in order to have a stable process and this is also where developments have been taking place. An example is in controlling the acid requirements real time and therefore reducing the residual sulphur dioxides associated with this resin system, which is where the help of FMS (Foundry Machinery and Spares Ltd) can come to our assistance.
When considering the binder systems, a foundry must consider overall cost and the environmental requirements and keep good controls of these to have a resin system that if fit for purpose in these demanding times.
The level of interest for this technical lecture was again clearly shown in the length of the Q and A session at the end of the lecture. Again Mr Higgins showed his depth of expertise in this field when answering the questions. At conclusion of the talk and Q&A the attendees thanked him in our usual way with a round of applause.
Article written by Mark Holliday Prof MICME
