Penticton foundry concerns

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Relentless
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Re: Penticton foundry concerns

Post by Relentless »

UltraViolet wrote:Burned silica sand and bonding resin is the main smell you will be smelling.

2muchinfo wrote:So that's what the smell is. Being new to town I've always wondered where that came from. Depends on which way the wind blows too. Thanks for the information. Hope what you say is true and that it is not harmful to the environment and to air quality for residents.

Air Quality from a Foundry is of great concern, and most Foundries have systems in place to "filter" the toxins, otherwise they would not be able to operate at all.
Seeing as they use the sand casting method, special resins are used to bond silica sand for making cores to hollow out castings, and sand with bentonite(powdered clay) is added for the main sand casting process. Water is added to the sand/bentonite mixture to achieve the correct compaction characteristics required for a good quality mold.

Now, the resin used to bond silica sand for making cores is a "chemical", and causes a stink when iron at 2370 degrees F burns it.
Ashland Chemicals makes it in their USA plant.

Now, until I go for a Foundry tour, I will have to assume, safety and quality control are key factors in today's Industries.
Most people smell the burnt core sand and think their is a major toxic chemical polluting the environment, but in fact the fumes aren't that bad, burned sand can't smell that good, could it?
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