Patent ID: 8056605
Filing Date: 2011-11-15
Classification: B22C

Abstract:
1. A method for molding stacked upper and lower molds with a flaskless molding machine that includes: two pairs of a cope flask and a drag flask, each flask defining an opening and having at least one sand-filling port on a sidewall thereof for injecting molding sand into the opening; a match plate having upper and lower patterns on top and bottom faces corresponding to the cope and drag flasks of the two pairs of the flasks; and a mold space defining station, a sand-supplying station and a mold stripping station; said method comprising the steps of: clamping and holding the match plate between one pair of the cope and drag flasks at the mold space defining station, wherein the cope and drag flasks of said one pair are in a horizontal position; defining upper and lower molding spaces by inserting upper and lower squeezing members into the respective openings of the flasks of said one pair opposed to the respective patterns of the match plate such that the upper molding space is defined by the cope flask, the top face of the match plate, and the upper squeezing member, and the lower molding space is defined by the drag flask, the bottom face of the match plate, and the lower squeezing member, wherein each molding space has an initial volume; rotating said one pair of the flasks, match plate and squeezing members in a vertical plane from said mold space defining station where said one pair of flasks are in a horizontal position to said sand-supplying station where said one pair of the flasks that hold the match plate therebetween are in a vertical position; first, injecting molding sand into each molding space that has the initial volume, through the sand-filling ports of each cope and drag flask of said one pair of the flasks while in the vertical position and at the sand-supplying station; increasing a volume in each molding space over the initial volume by retracting the upper and lower squeezing members by a predetermined length; second, injecting molding sand into each molding space that has the increased volume from the sand filling ports; advancing the upper and lower squeezing members, following the second injecting step, to squeeze the molding sand within the upper and lower molding spaces to form upper and lower molds in the flasks; rotating said one pair of the flasks in which the upper and lower molds have been formed and the squeezing members in the vertical plane from said sand-supplying station back to said mold space defining station where said one pair of flasks are again in a horizontal position; retracting the squeezing members from the respective openings of the flasks of said one pair of flasks, separating the cope and drag flasks of said one pair of flasks and removing the match plate from between the cope and drag flasks; rotating said one pair of flasks in which the upper and lower molds have been formed in a horizontal plane from said mold space defining station to a stripping station while simultaneously rotating a second pair of flasks disposed in a parallel relation on a horizontal level from said stripping station to said mold space defining station so that the squeezing members can be inserted in the respective openings of the flasks of said second pair of flasks at the mold space defining station and define upper and lower molding spaces in the second pair of flasks; stacking the cope and drag flasks of said one pair of flasks at the stripping station so that the upper and lower molds in the flasks are stacked; and stripping the stacked upper and lower molds from the cope and drag flasks of said one pair of flasks at the stripping station.