A sand rammer is a piece of equipment used in foundry sand testing

Foundry sand testing

Foundry sand testing is a foundry process used to determine if the foundry sand has the correct properties for a certain casting process. The sand is used to make moulds and cores via a pattern. In a sand casting foundry there are broadly two reasons for rejection of the casting — metal and...

 to make test specimen of molding sand by compacting bulk material by free fixed height drop of fixed weight for 3 times. It is also used to determine compactibility of sands by using special specimen tube and a linear scale.

Mechanism and operation

Sand rammer consists of calibration sliding weight actuated by cam, a cup to accommodate specimen tube below ram head, a specimen stripper to strip compacted specimen out of specimen tube, a specimen tube to prepare the standard specimen of 50 mm diameter by 50 mm height or 2 inch diameter by 2 inch height for an AFS

American Foundry Society

The American Foundry Society traces its roots to 1896 when the American Foundrymen's Association was formed. The Association was subsequently named The American Foundrymen's Society, and later the name was shortened to the American Foundry Society, sometimes shortened to AFS...

 standard specimen.

The sand rammer machine can also be used by filling the specimen tube with sand so that it is level with the top of the tube, and, by compacting the sand within the tube with a three-ram compaction to whatever height is the result of the three rams, compute a percent compactability of green sand.

The cam is actuated by a user by rotating the handle, causing a cam to lift the weight and let it fall freely on the frame attached to the ram head. This produces a standard compacting action to the pre-measured amount of sand. The object for producing the standard specimen is the have the specimen become 2 inches high (plus or minus 1/32 inch) with three rams of the machine. A rammer is mounted on a base block on a solid foundation, which provides vibration damping to insure consistent ramming.

After the specimen has been prepared inside the specimen tube, the specimen can be used for various standard sand tests such as the permeability test, the green sand compression test, the shear test, or other standard foundry tests.

Used for sand types

• Green sand
  Green sand
  Green sand may refer to:*Green sand , slightly damp sand, used in sand casting of metals*Greensand, a mineral containing glauconite*Olivine sand, which can form "green sand beaches"...
  
  
• Oil sand
• CO₂ sand
• Raw sand i.e. base sand i.e. un-bonded sand.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite equipments for sand rammer may vary from case to case basis or testing scenario:

Case 1: If the prepared sand is ready

• Tube filler accessory to fill sample tube with sand. Advantage is it lets the sand fill in from fixed distance and riddles it before filling.

Case 2: Experiment by preparing new sand sample
If sand needs to be prepared before making specimen following equipments may be needed

• Laboratory sand muller or laboratory sand mixer (for core sands)

Case 3: For low compressive strength sands and mixtures:

• Split specimen tube