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Abstract
An investigation was carried out to clarify the effect of the chemical composition of mould powder on its properties. A suitable commercial mould powder used for casting of some alloy steels was analysed. Ten different powders were designed to have identical elemental chemical composition but with some different phases using different raw material sources. These 11 powders were fired to 1300°C for 1 h. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicated that main phases are essentially the same. Prediction of mould flux viscosity by viscosity models yields identical values for all specimens. Melting rate was calculated for all samples and resulted similar values. With the same particle size range, bulk density of all powders was almost the same. The properties of the samples were similar and all with very good lubrication behaviour. It was concluded that the role of elemental chemical analysis in mould powders is more important than phase analysis and the raw materials used. This offers the opportunity for using 'waste' products as sources of raw materials for mould powders.