Preliminary testing of microwave-cured joints made of adhesives based on hydrated sodium silicate and quartz sand

In this paper an attempt was made to explain the phenomena accompanying the formation and destruction of bonded elements of moulds and cores in which a mixture of unmodified hydrated sodium silicate with a molar module of 2.9 (SiO₂/Na₂O) and a carrier - very fine quartz sand - was used as adhesives. Mixtures of prepared adhesives were made according to own compositional proposals and patent descriptions. On the basis of available literature data, the methodology of production and tensile strength testing of bonded joints with the use of divided octagonal dog-bone shapes was worked out. Dog-bone shaped pieces intended for binding were made of microwave-cured quartz sand with hydrated sodium silicate of molar module 2.5 (SiO₂/Na₂O). For the curing of bonded joints the electromagnetic wave heating method of 2.45 GHz was also applied. The results of tearing off the bonded halves of dog-bone shaped pieces in their smallest cross-section were related to the tensile strength tests of standard octagonal shaped pieces and to bonded joints known from patent descriptions. The results of critical loads of bonded joints were supplemented with SEM observations after tensile tests. On the basis of the conducted tests it was found that the tensile strength of such joints exceeds the tensile strength of the moulding sand, and the destruction of the bonded octagonal shapes takes place in areas near the surfaces on which inorganic adhesives were applied.

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