Professor emeritus, Dr. of Engineering Sciences and Dr. h. c. Werner Tilch studied in Freiberg silicate technology (mineralogy) between 1962 and 1967. In 1972, he completed his doctoral thesis in foundry technology at the Technical University Bergakademie in Freiberg. From 1972-1979, he worked as senior assistant professor at the foundry department in Freiberg. From 1979 to 1983, he worked in the foundry industry and abroad. In 1983, he was appointed university lecturer for foundry technologies. He was appointed professor at the Technical University Freiberg (Bergakademie) in 1995. In 2006, the Miskole University in Hungary awarded him the title of doctor honoris causa.Hartmut Polzin, Dr. habil. of En¬gineering Sciences, worked at the Foundry department of the Technical University Bergakademie in Freiberg. He studied foundry technologies in Freiberg and completed his doctoral thesis in the engineering sciences in 1999. The topic of his doctoral thesis is the microwave-assisted compaction of waterglass-bonded foundry mould¬ing materials. After several years of work in a foundry, Hartmut Polzin returned to the Foundry department of the Freiberg Technical University. Since 2008, he teaches and does research in the areas of moulding materials and moulding procedures. In 2012, he completed a paper on "inorganic binders for the creation of moulds and cores in foundries" and was appointed lecturer at the Techni¬cal University Freiberg. Dr.-Ing. (Dr. of Engineering Sciences) Michael Franke worked as independent contractor with international contacts in Dres¬den (Germany) since 2012. After studying foundry technologies at the Technical University Bergakademie in Freiberg, he completed his doctor¬al thesis at the Technical University Dresden in 1984. He then worked in the foundry industry for more than 30 years. In his role as technical manager of a foundry, he planned the building and launch of a modern foundry with complex equipment for the preparation and

According to estimates, modern foundries in Germany, Europe and worldwide replace about 70 % of their lost moulds with moulds made of bentonite-bonded materials. The main mould components are quartz sand, bentonite and water. These components are compacted in one of the most productive procedures in the foundry. One of the main advantages of this moulding material system is the ability to restore the bonding power of most of the material. This ability creates a moulding material circulation system. This system and the use of mostly inorganic moulding materials make this creation of moulds the most environmentally friendly choice for the cast part production.Because of this circulation of moulding materials and specifically because of the bentonite/water bonding system, the preparation of moulds made from bentonite-bonded moulding materials is very different from making moulds and cores using materials with chemical binders. This manual describes the handling and preparation of bentonite-bonded moulding materials as well as the moulding material recovery and re-use after forming the cast part.