Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Investigating the effect of additives in molding sand on mechanical

properties of casted ZAMAK-3 alloy
Sanjeev Kumar ⇑, Sandeep Gandotra
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BCET, Gurdaspur 143521, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: ZAMAK is a zinc-based alloy having high strength and ductility. In the present study, an attempt has been
Received 4 September 2020 made to investigate the effect of additives in sand casting on the mechanical properties of ZAMAK-3.
Received in revised form 1 October 2020 Different proportions of coal dust and sawdust as additives are mixed in molding sand during the mulling
Accepted 12 October 2020
process. The molds are prepared for the casting using the mulled sand having additives. The casting is
Available online xxxx
done using these molds. The mechanical properties of the casted alloy are measured by analyzing the
hardness, impact strength, and surface roughness. The results indicate that the cast Zamak-3 using saw-
Keywords:
dust as an additive in molding sand has superior performance as compared to cast Zamak-3 using coal
Sawdust
Coal dust
dust as an additive in the sand. Hardness increases with the addition of additives in molding sand and
Additives surface roughness decrease with an increase of additives in the molding sand. The maximum hardness
Hardness of 55 HRB is obtained with 7.5% of sawdust addition, and 16.36% increase in hardness was observed when
Impact strength compared with the neutral specimen. The maximum impact strength as 90 J was observed with the addi-
Surface roughness tion of 10% sawdust and 27.77% increase in impact strength was seen when compared to the neutral
specimen. Surface roughness decreases with the increase of additives in the molding sand. Minimum sur-
face roughness is obtained with 7.5% coal dust addition. It is also not advisable to add additives while
making the cast of specimens where impact strength plays a vital role.
Copyright Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
ence on Advances in Materials Processing & Manufacturing Applications.

1. Introduction
ZAMAK is eminent for its remarkable mechanical, thermal, and
electrical properties and cast at a moderate temperature promot-
ing energy saving. ZAMAK-3 is a zinc-based castable alloy having
high strength and malleability as its principal traits. It has numer-
ous applications in manufacturing industries, like plumbing fitting,
zippers, car parts, roof fans, blenders, and so on. A sound sand cast-
ing depends on the selection of process parameters such as type of
molding sand, moisture content, binders, additives, clay content,
and pouring temperature. Various researchers have attempted to
improve the casting ability of ZAMAK. Yang studied that the cast-
ing temperature fundamentally influences the mechanical proper-
ties during the gravity-squeeze casting of aluminium and zinc
alloys. The optimal outcomes were obtained at 460 °C during the
gravity-squeeze casting of the zinc alloy [1]. Zaman et al. examined
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sk_74@rediffmail.com (S. Kumar), sandeep.gandotra@yahoo.
co.in (S. Gandotra).
the impact of molding sand attributes (percentage clay and mois-
ture content) on the properties of green sand molding mixture.
The outcomes indicated that the clay content significantly affects
permeability and hardness, while moisture content has a mini-
mum effect [2]. Ojo Seidu et al. reported that the compaction and
moisture absorption ability of the mold was improved by using
sawdust as an additive [3]. Parekh and Vadher optimized the pro-
cess parameters for minimizing the casting imperfections by using
Taguchi and Artificial neural network techniques. The outcomes
showed that the minimum casting imperfections occur with 3.5%
of moisture, 120 permeability, 3.5% volatile content, 6% vent holes,
60 sec of pouring time, and 90 HRB of mold hardness [4]. Desai
et al. researched that the tamarind powder of 8 gm for each Kilo-
gram in molding sand with 7% moisture content gave better yield
properties to the castings [5]. Page and Hartmann examined the
thermo-mechanical behavior of Zamak 5 die-casted alloys based
on FEM (Finite element analysis) [6]. Rathod et al. reported that the
maximum chance of occurrence of shrinkage porosity was near the
center for Y junction during casting [7]. Kishore and Kumar studied
that the type of sand fundamentally affects the permeability of

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.10.228
2214-7853/Copyright Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Advances in Materials Processing & Manufacturing Applications.

Please cite this article as: S. Kumar and S. Gandotra, Investigating the effect of additives in molding sand on mechanical properties of casted ZAMAK-3
alloy, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.10.228
S. Kumar and S. Gandotra Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

molding sand, size of grains, fineness of grains and moisture grat- Table 2
ified, and amount of binder present in molding sand. The coarse- Additive proportion by weight (gms).

grained sand is more permeable than finer ones. The maximum Additive Percentage by weight (gms)
casting defects like blow holes were seen with casting having a fine Sawdust 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0
grain and low permeability number. It was due to a reduction in Coal dust 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0
the escaping capability of gases [8].
From the reviewed literature, it is seen that researchers have
endeavored to improve the casting process by varying the process
parameters, yet little endeavor has been made to study the effect of
additive addition in molding sand and the advantages therein. So
the current exploration work has been figured to examine the
impact of additives on the mechanical properties of zinc-based
alloys. Therefore, in this research work, the study has been con-
ducted to investigate the impact of additives on the mechanical
properties of ZAMAK-3. The coal and sawdust are used as additives
in the molding sand. Different proportions of the additives are
mixed in molding sand during the mulling process. The perfor-
mance of casting is analyzed by measuring the impact strength,
hardness, and surface roughness.

2. Materials and method

Zinc-based alloys (ZAMAK-3) was selected for the casting pro-
cess. ZAMAK-3 has excellent castability, high strength, ductility,
and damping capacity. The alloying elements in ZAMAK-3 are
shown in Table 1. The molding sand used for casting is usually
made from silica sand 80–90%, bentonite 8–12%, and moisture 5–
8%. In the present work, sawdust and coal dust are used as addi-
tives in the preparation of molding sand at different percentages
by weight as shown in Table 2. Coal dust used as an additive have
specification as volatile matter:40–50% max; ash content: 5–7%
max; fixed carbon: by difference. The sawdust additive is having
a size range from 0 to 10 mm with purity: 99% and moisture:
10%. The selection of the weight percentage of additive in molding
sand is carried out by analyzing the previous research work [3,5]. It
is seen during preliminary experimentations that; the strength of
the molding sand diminishes after the addition of 10% by weight
of additives. A wooden pattern with a rectangular shape of size
150  100  50 has been used for making the molds.
Fig. 1. Sand molds.
metal is poured in the mold cavity through vertical gates with the
help of a ladle. The filling time is very short to prevent the early
solidification of any one part of the metal. The solidification of mol-
ten metal starts, when the entire metal is filled in the mold cavity.
The desired cooling time is based on the wall thickness of the cast-
ing and the pouring temperature of the metal. After predetermined
solidification time, the casting is removed from the sand. The oxide
layer adheres to the surface of the casting is removed by using shot
blasting. Two sets of specimens were prepared and a total of 16
specimens were prepared. One set i.e. eight specimens obtained
after casting using different percentages of additives are shown
in Fig. 2.
4. Results and discussion

3. Casting process
The molding sand is prepared by mixing different additives
(coal dust and sawdust) in percentage by weight. The mold is pre-
pared by adding the proper amount of moisture in the molding
sand. Sixteen molds were prepared, out of which eight are pre-
pared using sawdust and others with coal dust as additive as per
the composition is given in Table 2. The sand is packed around
the pattern. After, the removal of the pattern the lubricant is
applied to the surfaces of the mold cavity to facilitate removal of
the casting. The use of a lubricant also improves the metal flows
and surface quality of the casting. One of the sand mold prepared
for casting is shown in Fig. 1. The cores are positioned and the mold
halves are closed and securely clamped together. The mold halves
must remain securely closed to prevent the loss of any material.
Besides, the mold surface is made clean and removes all dust par-
ticles. The mold is dried in an oven before the metal is poured. The
tilting oil furnace was used to molten the metal. The molten metal
is maintained at a set temperature in the furnace. The molten
In this research work, the effect of additives (coal dust and saw-
dust) on the mechanical properties during casting of ZAMAK-3
alloy was investigated using different percentages of additives as
Table 2. The performance was measured in terms of hardness,
impact strength, and surface quality. The comparison was made
with the neutral specimens (with no use of the additives in the
sand). The results obtained are given in Table 3.
4.1. Effects on the hardness
The hardness of the casted specimen was measured using Rock-
well hardness tester. The hardness was measured at five different
points for each specimen and the average value was taken. The
variation of hardness with different percentage of additive is
shown in Fig. 3. From the graph (Fig. 3), it is observed that there
is a very slight increase in hardness with an increase in additive
percentage from 2.5 to 5. Hardness then increases with the
increase in the percentage of additives whereas in the case of coal
dust it decreases. This may be attributed to the compact action and

Table 1
Alloying elements and their percentage.

Alloying element Al Cu Mg Fe Pb Cd Sn Zn
%age 3.9 0.24 0.03 0.1 0.004 0.003 0.002 Balance

2
S. Kumar and S. Gandotra Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 2. Specimen prepared with casting process having different percentages of additives.

Table 3
Results of the experiments taken at 95% confidence level.

Sample No of Impact Strength (J) Hardness (HRB) Surface roughness (lm)

No sample
Coal Dust Saw dust Neutral Coal Dust Saw dust Neutral Coal Dust Saw dust Neutral
1. 5 55 ± 0.554 22 ± 0.554 65.2 ± 0.656 50.6 ± 0.894 48.37 ± 0.731 46.4 ± 0.429 2.436 ± 0.0239 2.16 ± 0.0894 1.974 ± 0.00894
2. 5 70 ± 0.554 48 ± 0.554 65.2 ± 0.656 52.8 ± 0.656 49.44 ± 0.378 46.4 ± 0.429 3.532 ± 0.0203 1.618 ± 0.0102 1.974 ± 0.00894
3. 5 22 ± 0.554 32.2 ± 0.351 65.2 ± 0.656 48.8 ± 0.656 55 ± 0.554 46.4 ± 0.429 0.42 ± 0.0124 1.6 ± 0.0055 1.974 ± 0.0089
4 5 33.2 ± 0.656 90.2 ± 0.656 65.2 ± 0.656 46.8 ± 0.656 48 ± 0.554 46.4 ± 0.429 2.06 ± 0.0701 1.412 ± 0.0102 1.974 ± 0.00894

56

54

52

50
Hardness (HRB)

48

46

44
Coal dust
Saw dust
42 Neutral

40
2.5 5 7.5 10
Percenrage Additives

Fig. 3. Variation of hardness with the percentage of additives.

moisture-absorbing capacity of sawdust. From the plot, it is
observed that after 55 HRB hardness at 7.5% sawdust additive,
the hardness start decreasing. It may be because of better moisture
absorbed by the sawdust specimen. With coal dust as an additive,
the hardness increases with the addition of coal dust as an additive
in sand attain a maximum of 53 HRB at 5% and then decreased. The
hardness of the neutral specimen is observed 46 HRB. The low
hardness of specimen with coal dust as an additive due to less
moisture absorbing capacity when compared to sawdust as an
additive. It is also illustrated by analyzing the micrograph of the
specimen. The micrograph of the specimen with 5% coal dust and
7.5% sawdust is shown in Fig. 5 (a & b). The micrograph of the spec-
imen with 7.5% sawdust indicates that the columnar grain type
structure shows the hardness of the surfaces. The micrograph of

3
S. Kumar and S. Gandotra
Fig. 4. Variation of impact strength with the percentage of additives.
Fig. 5. Micrograph of the specimen (Taken at 200 X) (a) with 5% of coal dust (b) with 7.5% sawdust (c) with 10% sawdust additive.
the specimen with 5% of coal dust indicates the presence of some
micro defects on the surface. The results are in line with the Ojo
Seidu et al. (2014), Desai et al. (2016).
4.2. Effects on impact strength
The impact strength of the specimens was measured by per-
forming the Izod impact test, and the average value is used for
graphical representation. The specimens were prepared as per
the BIS standard (IS: 1598 – 1977). The variation of impact strength
with the percentage of additives is represented in Fig. 4 (a). The
increase in the impact strength is noted for the specimen with
sawdust as an additive. The maximum 90 J of impact strength is
measured with 10% as sawdust additive. The 70 J of impact
strength is seen with 5% as coal dust additive. The impact strength
of the neutral specimen shows 65 J. The micrograph of the speci-
men with 10% sawdust as an additive as shown in Fig. 5(c). It indi-
cates the fine grain structure, which results from proper
solidification, leads to high impact strength. The micrograph with
5% as a coal dust additive is shown in Fig. 5 (a). It indicates the
presence of some micro-holes on the surface. It is observed from
Fig. 4 that the addition of both coal dust and sawdust additives
4
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
does not help in improving the impact strength, so it is not advis-
able to add additives while making the cast of specimens where
impact strength plays a vital role. The results are in line with the
Ojo Seidu et al. (2014), Desai et al. (2016).
4.3. Effects on surface roughness
The surface roughness (Ra) of the casted specimen was mea-
sured by Surf test model no: SJ-400 (Mitutoyo make) at 0.8 mm
cut-off value. The surface roughness was measured at three differ-
ent points on the casted specimens and the average value is used
for analysis. The variation of surface roughness with the percent-
age of additives is shown in Fig. 6. The minimum surface was mea-
sured with coal dust as additive. The fluctuations of surface
roughness is due to the moisture absorbing capacity of additives.
Therefore, it is observed from the above discussion that the saw-
dust additive shows superior performance, in enhancing the
mechanical properties during casting of ZAMAK-3 when compared
to the addition of coal dust as additive. This may be because of high
moisture absorbing capacity and high compacting value of the
sawdust addition as compared to the use of coal dust as an additive
in the molding sand.
S. Kumar and S. Gandotra
Fig. 6. Variation of surface roughness with the percentage of additives.
5. Conclusions
The experiments have been performed to analyze the effects of
coal dust and sawdust as additives during the casting of ZAMAK-3
alloys. The following conclusions have been drawn:
 Hardness increases with the addition of additives in molding
sand. The Maximum hardness of 55 HRB is obtained with 7.5%
of sawdust addition, and 16.36% increase in hardness was
observed when compared with the neutral specimen. This
may be due to the better moisture absorbing capability with
the addition of sawdust.
 The addition of both coal dust and sawdust as additives does
not help in improving the impact strength, so it is not advisable
to add additives while making the cast of specimens where
impact strength plays a vital role. The maximum impact
strength of 90 J is obtained with a 10% sawdust addition and
27.77% increase in impact strength was observed when com-
pared to the neutral specimen.
 Surface roughness decreases with the increase of additives in
the molding sand. Minimum surface roughness is obtained with
7.5% coal dust addition.
 The performance of sawdust was superior to coal dust as addi-
tives in the sand during casting. This may be because of high
moisture absorbing capacity and compaction of sawdust.
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
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