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| Wood in the steel mold |
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| Dual furnaces going. One aluminum one bronze. |
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| Me getting some last minute advice from wise old professor |
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| Skimming the slag |
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| Getting the crucible |
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| Skimming again. |
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| Pouring a mold. |
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| First wood mold. |
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| Second wood mold |
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Third wood mold
Now somewhere around here the second wood mold exploded sending molten aluminum flying through the air. We did pretty good staying calm and holding the crucible steady. I got a few bits of aluminum stuck to my chest but as the one student said "that's why we wear full gear". Aaron wasn't quite as lucky he got hit on the back of the neck and was burned pretty bad. A few other people got hit with little gits of aluminum and got small burns but nothing serious. It was kind of a strange situation, everyone wanted to see what would happen when we poured into the wood, but that just meant there were more people around when something went wrong. Thankfully it was nothing that some burn cream and Neosporin won't fix.
I still have no idea why one exploded but the other two did not.
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| Finishing the pot in the ingot molds. |
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| Aluminium hit this curtain probably 8 ft. high and 15 ft away from the mold. |
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| Student with his battle scars and burnt shirt |
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| End result ^v |
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| Hopefully I'll get something I can use out of this. |
The students encountered a Force 1 explosion, maybe a Force 2 molten aluminium steam explosion. They are lucky not to have more serious burns or worse.
Please comment.
Wow, I guess they're lucky to be alive! Hopefully the school will put measures in place to avoid endangering students and faculty like this again. Maybe the person in charge of safety will read the rest of this blog an learn just how close they came to total destruction.
ReplyDeletePhiewww,
ReplyDeleteFrom the students, one can expect that kind of experimental behaviour. Also, they should be able to rely on their professor.
I do hope that this professor has learned from this "experiment".
Maybe in future, he can repeat this experiment- under safer conditions of course- to show the students what exactly happens and why.
Best regards,
Fred
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI am not involved in the melting part of the aluminum process. I am involved in the scrap recycling process which feeds the demand of new material. It is my understanding that water does not mix well with molten aluminum. Hence the explosion. We take extra consideration, by shipping dry mtals, for the women and men that do the hard job of melting aluminum.
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised that a group of students would conduct this sort of won't-this-be-neat experiment, but I'm rather shocked that the professors allowed/encouraged it especially after the wood started to catch fire.
ReplyDeleteOne suggestion I have for you at APSB, though, is that you might wish to link to the original blog post by the student for two reasons: 1) as you quote directly from the blog it's best to clearly site the source, and 2) it's unlikely that the students or professor will learn if polite comments are not directed directly at them.
Thanks for the comments! The APSB has reached out to the student and has received no response. We'll keep trying.
ReplyDeleteThanks APSB . really good information.
ReplyDeleteFor those wondering why would you cast Al on top of wood… http://www.contemporist.com/2012/04/16/wood-casting-by-hilla-shamia/?goback=%2Egde_74924_member_125185726
ReplyDeleteDO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! Remember what happened to those foundry students.
2 things come to mind here, was the wood wet, what was the moisture content, the molten metal will burn the wood allowing steam to escape causing a larger hydrogen explosion as water H20 has hydrogen which can cause a huge secondary explosion
ReplyDeletesecond was there any preheating of the metal container, the molten material coming in contact with metal that has not been preheated will cause an explosion also.
anyone working around molten metal should have correct p.p.e on that protects the entire body, wool is the best, or cotton, absolutely no manmade or synthetic material a neck cape would most likely have prevented he student from revieving his war wounds