Journal of Powder Metallurgy & Mining
Open Access

Research Article

Investigation of Gum Arabic and Its Suitability as a Composite Binder for Core Production

Ocheri C^1*, Agboola JB² and Moses OM³

¹Department of Metallurgical & Matls Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria

²Departmnet of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, Nigeria

³Departmnet of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Ajaokuta Steel Coy Ltd, Ajaokuta, Kogi, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author:

Ocheri C
Department of Metallurgical and Matls Engineering
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Enugu, Nigeria
Tel: +2348068433419
E-mail: ocheri4c@yahoo.com

Received Date: November 13, 2016; Accepted Date: December 26, 2016; Published Date: January 20, 2017

Citation: Ocheri C, Agboola JB, Moses OM (2017) Investigation of Gum Arabic and Its Suitability as a Composite Binder for Core Production. J Powder Metall Min 6: 147. doi:10.4172/2168-9806.1000147

Copyright: © 2017 Ocheri C, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Gum Arabic, exudates of several species of acacia, is typical of gum that contains Arabin. Gum Arabic of finest quality is obtained from Acacia Senegal and A. Arabica found in western and northern Africa. The Gum forms a clear thick solution in water. In this work, the foundry properties of Gum Arabic were investigated to ascertain its suitability as a composite binder for core production. Various percentages of Gum Arabic and some conventional foundry binders were prepared and their binding properties determined. Since the binder has low limit hydration, it does not require the use of much water during mixture preparation. For the purpose of this work, 4%-6% of the Gum Arabic was used with conventional binders like bentonite, water glass, industrial starch, linseed oil to prepare core mixtures. A higher percentage (13-15%) of Gum Arabic alone was also used. Foundry properties like permeability, scatter index; mouldability index, moisture content, compressive strength tests and refractoriness were examined. The results revealed that the binder has a low refractoriness of 1200°C. This has the advantage of enhanced and good collapsibility during knock out.

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