The Inconel 740H alloy is used in the construction of pressure components of ultra-supercritical operating parameters. The paper presents the results of microstructure analysis after 1000 and 10 000 h ageing at 700 and 750 • C. Microstructure studies were made using scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Identification of precipitations was made using X-ray analysis of phase composition. The influence of ageing time on changes in microstructure and the precipitation process of the tested alloy were described. Presented research results are a material characteristic of new generation materials, which are used in the design of elements of pressure parts of boilers and diagnostics work during operation.

Casting quality depends on many factors including the quality of the input materials, technology, material securing and last but not least, the mould into which the casting is casted. By pouring into a single-shot mould, based mainly on 1st generation binders, is is a very important factor. Basically, a bentonite mixture represents either a three- or four-component system, but each component of the system is a heterogeneous substance. This heterogeneity punctuates mainly a non-stationary heat field, presented throughout the whole process of the casting production. The most important component is a binder and in the case of first generation binders mostly bentonites are used - clays that contain minimum of 80% of montmorillonite.

The automotive industry is one of the most important customers for the foundry industry. In particular, casting of engine parts for combustion engines is one of the most demanding areas of casting technology. New generation of engine blocks and cylinder heads are getting geometrically more complicated in order to maintain or even increase performance. With the increased complexity, the strain for the casting molds is growing and the widely used technology of core making with standard silica sands is, for several applications, no longer reaching the demanded results. Furthermore, in last decade, there has been an effort in using inorganic binders in core making process, which brings along some additional technological challenges. In order to cope with these challenges, in this paper, silica and non-silica sands with round and angular grains as well as with fine and coarse grains are examined using an inorganic binder for strength, permeability, and thermal stability. The results shall provide useful information about the possibilities of application and combining different types of foundry sands, both silica and non-silica. With their impact on the selected sand core properties, they can help in solving problems in the core making process as well as reaching a high quality of the final product-casting.

Nowadays, constant pressure on enviromental aspects in the foundry industry is calling for an improvement in casting production. The almost not used inorganic binders are coming back to the fore. Into this group, among others, belong binders based on alcali silicate solutions, known as water glass. The new hot-curing binder systems were introduced by different binder manufacturers. In order to compensate dissadvantages of alkalic silicate binder, the systems and processes are working with additives and adjuvants which are contained in a binder itself or added in liquid or powder form to the sand mixture. This paper presents the ASK Inotec process and impact of silica sand granulometry on achieved core mixture strength, which is important from a core production and also from a decoring ability point of view. Experiment was performed in laboratory terms using standard equipment and conditions.

The main bulk density representation in the molding material is opening material, refractory granular material with a particle size of 0.02 mm. It forms a shell molds and cores, and therefore in addition to activating the surface of the grain is one of the most important features angularity and particle size of grains. These last two features specify the porosity and therefore the permeability of the mixture, and thermal dilatation of tension from braking dilation, the thermal conductivity of the mixture and even largely affect the strength of molds and cores, and thus the surface quality of castings.[1] Today foundries, which use the cast iron for produce of casts, are struggling with surface defects on the casts. One of these defects are veining. They can be eliminated in several ways. Veining are foundry defects, which arise as a result of tensions generated at the interface of the mold and metal. This tension also arises due to abrupt thermal expansion of silica sand and is therefore in the development of veining on the surface of casts deal primarily influences and characteristics of the filler material -opening material in the production of iron castings.

Actual problem of all foundries that produce core castings with the Cold-Box-Amine methods are surface defects. Most common surface defect are burrs. Therefore it is needed to specify the possibilities for preventing the burrs, or make their occurrence as low as possible. According to the knowledges, the best way of eliminating the burrs is using of additives. Experiments were executed on two types of gray cast iron castings, where during preparation of mould mixture for first casting additive EP 3767/2 had been used and additive Spherox had been used for second casting. These chosen additives showed good results, surface of castings was clean, without surface defects. Given the effectiveness of selected additives only for specific types of castings, it is necessary to define the effects of these additives on the quality of the castings. For further production of flawless cast, it is necessary to describe all the possibilities of eliminating burrs.

In modern times, there are increasing requirements for products quality in every part of manufacturing industry and in foundry industry it is not different. That is why a lot of foundries are researching, how to effectively produce castings with high quality. This article is dealing with search of the influence of using different types of risers or chills on shrinkage cavity production in ductile iron castings. Differently shaped risers were designed using the Wlodawer´s modulus method and test castings were poured with and without combination of chills. Efficiency of used risers and chills was established by the area of created shrinkage cavity using the ultrasound nondestructive method. There are introduced the production process of test castings and results of ultrasound nondestructive reflective method. The object of this work is to determine an optimal type of riser or chill for given test casting in order to not use overrated risers and thus increase the cost effectiveness of the ductile iron castings production.

The aim of this paper is to summarize the possibilities of foundry methods for the production of metallic foams. At present, there are a number of production technologies for this interesting material, to which increasing attention has been paid in recent years. What is unique about metallic foams is the combination of their physical and mechanical properties. As part of our research, we designed and verified four main methods of metallic foam production by the foundry technology, whose products are metallic foam castings with regular and irregular arrangements of internal cavities. All these methods use materials and processes commonly used in conventional foundry technologies. The main idea of the research is to highlight such technologies for the production of metallic foams that could be provided by manufacturing companies without the need to introduce changes in production. Moreover, foundry methods for the production of metallic foams have the unique advantage of being able to produce even complex shaped parts and can thus be competitive compared to today’s established technologies, the output of which is usually only a semi-finished product for further processing. This fact was the main motivation for the research.