VCAT-II Online Compactability, Moisture, Permeability & Mould Strength Testing System

See the whole system: VCAT-II is one node in the V-CAT online green sand testing and control system, mixer to mould.

The Versatile VCAT-II tests green sand in-line at the moulding machine, automatically extracting a sample from the stream and reporting compactability, estimated moisture, mould permeability and strength in seconds, live on a shop-floor display, with alarms, feedback to the mixer and mould rejection. It is part of the V-CAT (Versatile Controller & Tester) family that instruments and controls the whole green-sand plant.

What it tests, and how fast

• Compactability (squeezing type)
• Estimated moisture (electrical properties correlated to moisture)
• Mould permeability
• Strength: mould strength (penetration type) or green compression strength

Typical testing time is 12-15 seconds without permeability and 15-22 seconds with permeability, frequent enough to test as often as every mould (cope and drag separately), or at any lower frequency you set.

Why test at the moulding machine?

Even when compactability is controlled at the mixer, the sand changes on its way to the mould: line stoppages add time delay, the distance from mixer to moulding matters, sand temperature rises from mixing, and ambient temperature and humidity drift through the day and the seasons. Testing at the point of use gives you a second, closer feedback loop where it actually counts.

Closed-loop control and mould rejection

After each test the VCAT-II shows the result and raises an alarm on deviation, sends immediate set-point feedback to the mixer compactability controller, and drives a mould-rejection marking output based on your LCL/UCL limits, so out-of-spec moulds are flagged and rejected automatically.

Networking & data

A LAN links all systems for fast, reliable communication. The V-Sync system syncs readings to the cloud (your account on sandtesting.org) or a local server, and an optional SCADA stores readings locally. Pattern numbers can be updated from an optional input device.