Extremely intense development of civilization requires from foundry casting technologies very high quality and not expensive castings. In

the foundries, there are many treatments that allow increasing of the final properties of produced castings such as refining, modification,

heat treatment, etc. One of the methods of increasing the quality of the casting by removing inclusions from the liquid alloy is filtration.

The use of ceramic-carbon foam filters in filtration process is still analysed phenomenon that allows improving the final properties of

castings. A modern method of research, testing and synthesis of innovative chemical compositions allows improving the properties of such

filters. In the paper the evaluation of application properties of developed ceramic-carbon bonded foam filters is presented. The quality of

the foam filters is evaluated by Computer Tomography and foundry trials in pouring of liquid metal in test molds. Additionally computer

simulations were made to visualize the flow characteristics in the foam filter. The analysed filters are the result of the research work of

Foundry Research Institute and the Institute of Ceramics and Building Materials, Refractory Materials Department in Gliwice.

The article was created as a result of the work TECHMATSTRATEG 1 program “Modern Material Technologies” as part of the project with the acronym INNOBIOLAS entitled “Development of innovative working elements of machines in the forestry sector and biomass processing based on high-energy surface modification technologies of the surface layer of cast elements”; agreement No. TECHMATSTRATEG1/348072/2/NCBR/2017.
The article discusses the procedure for selecting casting materials that can meet the high operational requirements of working tools of mulching machines: transfer of high static and dynamic loads, resistance to tribological wear, corrosion resistance in various environments. The mulching process was briefly described, then the alloys were selected for experimental tests, model alloys were made and perform material tests were carried out in terms of functional and technological properties. The obtained results allowed to select the alloy where the test castings were made.

The article presents the developed IT solutions supporting the material and technological conversion process in terms of the possibility of using the casting technology of selected alloys to produce products previously manufactured with the use of other methods and materials. The solutions are based on artificial intelligence, machine learning and statistical methods. The prototype module of the information and decision-making system allows for a preliminary assessment of the feasibility of this type of procedure. Currently, the selection of the method of manufacturing a product is based on the knowledge and experience of the technologist and constructor. In the described approach, this process is supported by the proprietary module of the information and decision-making system, which, based on the accumulated knowledge, allows for an initial assessment of the feasibility of a selected element in a given technology. It allows taking into account a large number of intuitive factors, as well as recording expert knowledge with the use of formal languages. Additionally, the possibility of searching for and collecting data on innovative solutions, supplying the knowledge base, should be taken into account. The developed and applied models should allow for the effective use and representation of knowledge expressed in linguistic form. In this solution, it is important to use methods that support the selection of parameters for the production of casting. The type, number and characteristics of data have an impact on the effectiveness of solutions in terms of classification and prediction of data and the relationships detected.