Furan Sand Hardness Measurement

I'd use this type of equipment. This is not an endorsement of this company.

Dietert Sand Test Equipment Product Index

Thanks a lot for the tip :)

A needle point indent measurement is stupid. Use something like a 10mm diameter steel ball.

Also I am not that sure a hardness test is that useful, since molding sands generally have to be porous, and the main issues are the quality of the bind between the grains.

I'd suggest casting or ramming up 50 x 50 x 110mm specimen of the molding sand - with a "U" breaking groove in the middle about 30% of the way through - and using a tensile test on them.

A set of foam rubber jaws, a pre determined non crush clamping pressure and a simple applied force tension test - a basic hand lever and a marker to show the highest strain reached before rupture.

Properly rammed and bonded sand is not going to compress much, and hardness is not a good test of the bind strength.

Well, we`ve tried Brinell testing equipment with 10mm steel ball, but that willl not give us stable and relevant values.

Our situation is that we need to be able to measure the moulds prior to coating and we need to do it in the production line.

We perform tests like you describe in the labs at our foundries, but we need values that are directly related to each specific mould using some kind of non-destructive measuring tools.

To find such equipment still seems very challenging...