Bentonite is clay rock, which is created by decomposition of vulcanic glass. It is formed from mixture of clay minerals of smectite group,

mainly montmorillonite, beidellite and nontronite. Its typical characteristics is, that when in contact with water, it intensively swells. First

who used this term was W.C. Knight in 1887. The rock had been named after town Fort Benton in American state Montana. For its

interesting technological properties and whiteness has wide technological use. Bentonite is selectively mined and according to its final use

separately modified, which results in high quality product with specific parameters.

In the beginning of 21st century belong bentonite moulding mixtures in foundry to always perspective. Mainly increased ratio of ductile

cast iron castings production cannot be ensured without the need of quality bentonite. Great area of scope remains to further research of

moulding materials, which return also to bentonite producers.

In modern times, there are increasing requirements for products quality in every part of manufacturing industry and in foundry industry it

is not different. That is why a lot of foundries are researching, how to effectively produce castings with high quality. This article is dealing

with search of the influence of using different types of risers or chills on shrinkage cavity production in ductile iron castings. Differently

shaped risers were designed using the Wlodawer´s modulus method and test castings were poured with and without combination of chills.

Efficiency of used risers and chills was established by the area of created shrinkage cavity using the ultrasound nondestructive method.

There are introduced the production process of test castings and results of ultrasound nondestructive reflective method. The object of this

work is to determine an optimal type of riser or chill for given test casting in order to not use overrated risers and thus increase the cost

effectiveness of the ductile iron castings production.

Grey cast iron belongs to materials for casting production, which have wide application for different industry branches. Wide spectrum of

properties of these materials is given by the structure of base metal matrix, which can be influenced with heat treatment. Processes of

annealing can be applied for grey cast iron without problems. During heat treatment processes, where higher cooling rates are used, the

thermal and structural strains become important. Usage and conditions of such heat treatment for grey cast iron castings of common

production are the subject of evaluation of this article.

Homogeneity of die castings is influenced by wide range of technological parameters as piston velocity in filling chamber of die casting machine, filling time of mould cavity, temperature of cast alloy, temperature of the mould, temperature of filling chamber, surface pressure on alloy during mould filling, final pressure and others. Based on stated parameters it is clear, that main parameters of die casting are filling time of die mould cavity and velocity of the melt in the ingates. Filling time must ensure the complete filling of the mould cavity before solidification process can negatively influence it. Among technological parameters also belong the returning material, which ratio in charge must be constrained according to requirement on final homogeneity of die castings. With the ratio of returning material influenced are the mechanical properties of castings, inner homogeneity and chemical composition.

The demand for castings of high quality and sound work is nowadays very high. The production of sound castings without foundry errors is the big issue in modern foundries. Foundry simulation software can do a lot to help improve the disposition of castings, gating system and feeder system, and assure good filling and solidification conditions, and also produce sound casting without the need of the old method of "try and error". One can easily change a lot of parameters for filling and solidification, and create the best proposal for production. Connor inlets have two functions. One is that it serves as an ingate, through which molten metal passes and comes into the mould cavity. The second function is that it serves as a feeder and substitutes the metal contracted during solidification and cooling of the castings. It can also save quite a lot of metal in comparison to classic feeders.

The main bulk density representation in the molding material is opening material, refractory granular material with a particle size of 0.02

mm. It forms a shell molds and cores, and therefore in addition to activating the surface of the grain is one of the most important features

angularity and particle size of grains. These last two features specify the porosity and therefore the permeability of the mixture, and

thermal dilatation of tension from braking dilation, the thermal conductivity of the mixture and even largely affect the strength of molds

and cores, and thus the surface quality of castings. [1]

Today foundries, which use the cast iron for produce of casts, are struggling with surface defects on the casts. One of these defects are

veining. They can be eliminated in several ways. Veining are foundry defects, which arise as a result of tensions generated at the interface

of the mold and metal. This tension also arises due to abrupt thermal expansion of silica sand and is therefore in the development of

veining on the surface of casts deal primarily influences and characteristics of the filler material – opening material in the production of

iron castings.

Recently, the use of inorganic binders cured by heat as a progressive technology for large scale production of cores is widely discussed topic in aluminium foundries. As practical experiences show, knock-out properties of inorganic binders were significantly increased, although they cannot overcome organic based binder systems. This paper contains information about hot curing processes based on alkali silicate and geopolymer binder systems for core making. Main differences between hot cured geopolymers and hot cured alkali silicate based inorganic binders are discussed. Theory of geopolymer binder states, that binder bridge destruction is mainly of adhesive character. The main aim of this research paper was to examine binder bridge destruction of alkali silicate and geopolymer binder systems. In order to fulfil this objective, sample parts were submitted to defined thermal load, broken and by using SEM analysis, binder bridge destruction mechanism was observed. Results showed that geopolymer binder system examined within this investigation does not have mainly adhesive destruction of binder bridges, however the ratio of adhesive-cohesive to cohesive destruction is higher than by use of alkali silicate based binder systems, therefore better knock-out properties can be expected.

The use of environmentally friendly inorganic binders and new technologies for cores production is widely discussed topic in recent years. This paper contains information about new hot curing process for core making with alumina-silicate based inorganic binders – geopolymers. Main differences between hot cured geopolymers and hot cured alkali silicate based inorganic binders are discussed. The main objective of this research paper was to investigate basic technological properties of geopolymer binder system such as strength, compaction, storage ability and knock-out properties. For this purpose, three mixtures with different powder additives were prepared and tested in laboratory conditions using specific methods. Strength properties evaluation showed sufficient levels as well as knock-out properties measurement, even with additives B and C originally designed for the use with alkali silicate based two component binder systems. Additives B and C were considered compatible with geopolymer binders after casting production trial results. Storage ability of geopolymers seems to be more sensitive than of alkali silicate based binders in the same tested conditions. Mixtures with geopolymer binder showed 20% more decrease of strength compared to alkali silicate binders after 24 hours in conditions of 25 °C and 65 %RH.