Abstract
A commercial foundry has been established which makes extensive use of fluid beds in the production of heat treated alloy steel castings. The castings are cooled immediately after solidification by fluidizing the mold sand in which they were cast. Castings are then normalized and tempered in separate fluid bath furnaces with the entire operation being completed within a few hours of pouring.
Fluid baths are also used for cooling of spent sand and for quenching of castings. Trial applications with austempering cycles have been conducted with excellent results. A unique fluid bed bath which is used for preheating, weld positioning and post-heating of castings has also been produced. Substantial energy and material handling savings have been obtained. Areas requiring further design and development of fluid bed applications are also described.
Kemp, W. E. (1981). Design and Operation of Fluid Beds for Heating, Cooling and Quenching Operations. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /94381.