In the production of cast aluminum automotive parts, cores made of sand and binders are often used to create the complex features that cannot be formed by the mold, such as internal passages. Core binders can be grouped into two different categories: organic and inorganic, depending on the binder system used. Conventional organic binders use petroleum-based materials that are sources of harmful gases. In contrast, inorganic binders such as sodium silicates (water glass) are environmentally friendly. The fabrication of inorganic cores requires a drying step that involves thermal dehydration (using hot box and hot air injection) and chemical reactions (polymerization) to give the sand core the necessary strength to withstand the constraints developed during core storage and the casting process. This drying step increases the duration of the process and affects the production line. This study evaluated different thin layer drying models to understand the drying behavior of sand cores in the inorganic process that uses both hot air and warm box. The Page model was found to best describe the drying kinetics based on experimental measurements on a rectangular core. The sorption properties of the core were determined by characterizing the desorption isotherms at three different temperatures. The energy required to remove water from the core was estimated and it is found that the highest energy reached a theoretical maximum at a box temperature of around 135 °C.

在铸铝汽车零部件的生产中，通常使用由砂子和粘合剂制成的型芯来创建模具无法形成的复杂特征，例如内部通道。根据所使用的粘合剂系统，芯粘合剂可分为两个不同的类别：有机和无机。传统的有机粘合剂使用石油基材料，这些材料是有害气体的来源。相比之下，硅酸钠（水玻璃）等无机粘合剂是环保的。无机砂芯的制造需要一个干燥步骤，其中包括热脱水（使用热箱和热空气注入）和化学反应（聚合），以使砂芯具有必要的强度，以承受砂芯储存和铸造过程中产生的限制。该干燥步骤增加了过程的持续时间并影响生产线。本研究评估了不同的薄层干燥模型，以了解同时使用热风和暖箱的无机工艺中砂芯的干燥行为。根据矩形芯的实验测量，发现 Page 模型最能描述干燥动力学。通过表征三个不同温度下的解吸等温线来确定芯的吸附特性。对从核心去除水所需的能量进行了估算，发现最高能量在箱体温度约为 135 °C 时达到理论最大值。