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3D printing of high-strength water-soluble salt cores via material extrusion

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Abstract

Core materials with high strength and excellent collapsibility are important for the manufacture of hollow composite structure castings. In this work, a novel technology to fabricate water-soluble Na2SO4-NaCl-based salt cores with high strength and low cost by material extrusion (ME) was reported. The water-soluble Na2SO4 and NaCl powders were used as the matrix materials, and the bauxite powder was used as the reinforcing material. The effects of bauxite powder content and liquid phase sintering parameters on the properties of the salt cores were studied. The results show that the salt-based slurry exhibits shear thinning property within the studied bauxite powder contents. When the content of bauxite powder was 20 wt.% and the sintering was at 630 ℃/30 min, the obtained salt cores show an optimal comprehensive performance, with the bending strength, linear shrinkage, water solubility rate, and moisture rate of 24.43 MPa, 6.3%, 207.6 (g/min·m2), and 0.29%, respectively. The complex water-soluble salt core samples prepared under optimal parameters display high-strength and well-shaped morphology.

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Funding

The authors would like to thank the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51775204 and 51971099) and the Analytical and Testing Center, HUST.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Xiaolong Gong, Xinwang Liu, Zheng Chen, Zhiyuan Yang, Wenming Jiang & Zitian Fan

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  1. Xiaolong Gong
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  2. Xinwang Liu
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  3. Zheng Chen
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  4. Zhiyuan Yang
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  5. Wenming Jiang
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  6. Zitian Fan
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Contributions

Xiaolong Gong and Xinwang Liu designed and participated in experiments and wrote the manuscript draft. Zheng Chen and Zhiyuan Yang performed the experiments. Wenming Jiang analyzed the data. Zitian Fan directed this study, revised the manuscript, and provided the funding. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xinwang Liu or Zitian Fan.

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Gong, X., Liu, X., Chen, Z. et al. 3D printing of high-strength water-soluble salt cores via material extrusion. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 118, 2993–3003 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-08131-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-08131-x

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