No-Bake: The cold curing process
Synthetic resins have been used since the early 1960s to produce moulds and cores for large and one-off castings.
Hüttenes-Albertus was one of the pioneers in the field of synthetic resins and has continuously developed the initially relatively simple formulas through intensive research – tailored to the requirements of our foundry customers around the world. Our founding fathers set important milestones in 1961 with the introduction of furanic cold-curing resins and in 1965 with the development of cold-curing phenolic resins. The introduction of these processes marks what is without doubt one of the foundry industry’s greatest milestones.
In order to meet the steadily growing demands of foundries and their customers in recent decades, we are continually refining our cold resins. In recent years, the term No-Bake has become established to describe this process.
What makes our binder systems so special

Significantly reduced emissions
e.g. through low-sulphur and BTeX-reduced systems

Recycling management
High reuse rate of basic moulding material.

High productivity
Controllable processes, low defect tendency, excellent casting results

Compliance with environmental regulations
and avoidance of hazardous ingredients e.g. via systems with a free formaldehyde content <0.05%.
Our No-Bake product portfolio
Furan-Kaltharz
This classical all-purpose method for production of nearly all types of castings features.
What its special features are:
- Low binder addition level
- Low viscosity
- Long storage life
- Good through curing
- Low odor
- Low emissions during sand mixing and mold filling. The permissible MAK (TLV) levels are generally underrun.
- Easily recoverable used sand
- Nitrogen-free grades of resins that are particularly suitable for high-quality steel castings
- Reactive, rapidly curing specialty resins offering short stripping times. Use of aggressive activators is consequently unnecessary
- Low-sulfur systems for high-quality ductile iron. The total sulfur level is nearly halved. This also offers a marked decrease in SO2 emissions during and after pouroff.
Phenol-Kaltharz: Sinotherm
Particularly suitable for production of individual heavy castings of steel, gray iron and ductile iron, this method offers the following advantages:
- Low-nitrogen resins
- Long sand bench life
- Low overcure tendency
- Uniform curing
- Reduced pollutant liberation during curing due to low levels of free formaldehyde and phenol
- Easily recoverable used sand
Polyurethane-Isocyanate: Pentex
Reactive system for short and medium series steel and aluminum casting. Environmentally compatible thanks to the use of new solvents, this method features:
- Short curing times despite a relatively lengthy sand bench life
- Low binder addition levels
- Unsurpassed sand flow
- Smooth, firm moldings
- Good separation from coreboxes
- Low odor nuisance
- Free of sulfur and phosphorous
- Good surfaces in steel casting, free of cracks
Resole-Ester: Sinotherm 200
This method is used for high-quality steel castings, and features the following properties:
- Very good casting surfaces, particularly in steel casting, result in considerable reduction of finishing costs
- Free of nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorous
- Patterns are easily stripped
- Low pollutant emissions during curing and pouroff
- Low carbon uptake in steel casting
- Low tendency for heat cracking and finning
- Good collapse properties
Best Practice
Mould and core production requires dependable binder systems in order to produce reliable and consistent hand-castings and large castings.
The following two examples perfectly illustrate our close collaboration with our customers in the development of precision product solutions.