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.

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.

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.

The main problem during the production of castings from aluminium alloys is the presence of the reoxidation, which negatively affects the final casting quality. Liquid metal surface reacts with the surrounding atmosphere and oxide layer of Al₂O₃ is formed on its surface. The problem occurs when the oxide layer is entrained to the internal volume of the melt by turbulence and double oxide layers are formed, also known as “bifilms”. Its formation is related to the melt velocity and gating system design. In paper, naturally pressurized gating system was calculated and designed. Effect of the filter media and vortex element on the melt velocity, amount of oxides, mechanical properties, and porosity were observed. Designs with 10 ppi and 20 ppi foam filters and vortex element were compared with design without filters to prove the positive (or negative) effect of filter media on melt velocity and thus on final casting quality. The melt velocity and amount of oxides were observed with the aid of simulation software. Mechanical properties, quantity of pores, bifilm index and EDX analysis were evaluated after experimental casts. It was proven that by using 20 ppi foam filter in combination with vortex element, the best results were achieved.

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to examine the impact of inward and outward foreign direct investment on innovation performance of the Visegrad and Baltic countries.Methodology/Approach: The study follows an open-system approach to consider the determinants of national innovation performance, taking into account both inward and outward FDI. We use two-step analysis that combines panel data regression analysis with the design of two FDI – innovation performance matrixes.Findings: The results of the study provide evidence that only outward foreign direct investment of domestic firms contributes significantly to the innovation performance of these countries and that this effect is more visible in the case of the Visegrad countries.Research Limitation/Implication: The limitations of the study are associated in particular with the selection of SII as a measure of national innovation performance. The use of this indicator is also related to the relatively short period of availability of consistent data, especially in connection with changes in the methodology of SII calculation.Originality/Value of paper: The policy implications of the paper suggest the need for stronger support of domestic bearers of cross-border capital movements in an attempt to boost national innovation performance.

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.