TSF laboratory began to work when the foundry started production in 1980s. Over the course of the foundry's history, this unit has been continuously updated to meet the changing needs of clients and expand its activities to offer tailored solutions in the new fields of work. Apart from everyday needs of the foundry, the increasing demand in the region to a professional metallurgical lab, urged this research laboratory to start its cooperation with the local standard organization, aiming to expand its activities. For this purpose, international standards are being implemented to enable TSF foundry lab to offer a wide range of services as a research center who responds different individual clients and is at the same time aligned with the foundry needs.
Its major activities fall into three following categories:

1 - Raw Material Inspection.
To assure that the molding material fulfils quality requirements, needed for high quality castings, mold sand, binder and steel scrap are persistently inspected before any use.
Sand grain size and size distribution are checked by sieve analysis test equipment. Sand compressive strength, gas permeability and shatter index tests are carried out according to international standards. Sand binder is also tested and will only be allowed to go to production line after quality approval.

Sieve Analysis Test Used for Determination of Sand AFS Standard Number and Size Distribution

Sand Laboratory Equipment

2 - Final Product Control
Hardness as a very important factor in wear-resistant parts, is constantly measured by using a portable hardness tester.
The microstructures of cast parts are fully studied by an optical microscope, equipped with a camera which allows to keep a record of all metallographic images.

Metallography Equipment

Ultrasonic test (UT), as an important NDT examination procedure to assure parts volumetric soundness is performed internally by TSF certified personnel.
Different probes are available for this purpose.

Ultrasonic Test Equipment

3 - Quantometric Analysis of Iron and Nickel-based Alloys
A test sample of each melt batch is analyzed by two spectrometers in order to adjust the melt chemical analysis in a timely-manner.
It also performs chemical analysis on steel scraps and offers services to individual clients.
The wide variety of reference materials is more-than-enough for the foundry use and enables the laboratory to determine the chemical analysis of a wide range of Iron-based alloys.

Two Foundry Master Spectrometers in TSF Laboratory

Different Kinds of Certified Reference Materials