Laser sintering of silica sand - Mechanism and application to sand casting mould

Silica sand is commonly used in the foundry industry. With a high melting point of 1600degreesC the silica sand is normally sintered in a high-temperature furnace. However, silica with contents of calcium, aluminium, magnesium, and chlorine, etc. can form low-melting point eutectics. Therefore, a relatively low-power laser can be used to sinter the silica sand directly. The investigation of the mechanism and process for direct laser sintering of the silica sand, without any binder, is presented in this paper. Combined with rapid prototyping (RP) technology, the laser sintering of the silica sand can be used to directly fabricate a sand casting mould, called a rapid sand casting mould. By avoiding the time-consuming process of fabricating a pattern, the rapid sand casting mould process has the potential of further reducing the lead time for producing a casting product. Some important issues, such as the lead time of producing a sand mould, its accuracy, and surface finish, etc., are discussed.