Patent GB-1034663-A (GB)
Title: Automatic mold preparating apparatus
IPC: B22C11/00
Filed: 1963-03-12
Abstract: 1,034,663. Moulding machines. ALTAMIL CORPORATION. March 12, 1963 [March 15, 1962], No. 9749/63. Heading B3F. Apparatus for preparing a sand mould for casting, and particularly a CO 2  hardened mould, comprises a mould blowing station 1, a mould extraction station 3 and a mould assembly station 5, means, at a station 2 for presenting to the blowing machine alternately a drag mould box and pattern and a mating cope mould box and pattern, and for moving the filled mould boxes to the extraction station sequentially, means at the extraction station for extracting the moulds alternately from the drag and cope mould boxes, means, at a station 4, for alternately moving said drag and cope moulds from the extraction station to the assembly station and inverting the drag mould during such movement so as to provide at the assembly station a completed drag mould and cope mould in spaced, aligned positions and means at the assembly station to close the mould, and means to move the completed mould out of the apparatus for pouring. The preferred apparatus includes a station 7 at which cores are blown, and a station 6 with a transfer device for moving the cores to the assembly station 5 for incorporation in the moulds. The blowing station 1 comprises a blowing machine 14. After the mould has been blown a squeeze plate is inserted by means of an hydraulic cylinder between the blowhead and the top of the mould, and the work-table raised to squeeze the sand. As the table is lowered an initial small movement is given to the squeeze plate to break the adhesion between the sand and the plate. CO 2  gas is then applied to harden the mould. The transfer device at station 2, Figs. 1 and 6, comprises two diametrically opposed vertically movable arms 27, 28 rotatable about a vertical axis and carrying cope and drag mould boxes and patterns 19-19c. While one empty box is being presented to the mould blowing machine at station 1 the previously blown and gassed mould is being presented to the extraction station 3. At station 4, Figs. 1 and 8, a pair of coupled cope arms 35 and a pair of individually rotatable drag arms 36 are mounted for rotation on a column 34, each drag arm also being mounted for rotation about its own axis so that a drag mould carried thereby can be inverted. The arms receive the moulds at the extraction station 3 the moulds being held to the carriers 41, 42 on the arms by vacuum applied through the carriers, while the boxes and patterns are lowered therefrom, the drawing being assisted by atmospheric or pressure air applied through the pattern carriers 27, 28. The moulds are then presented alternately to the assembly station 5 by rotation of the arms 35, 36, drags being inverted during their movement so that a cope 44 and drag 43 are held in spaced-apart relationship at the station 5. Meanwhile at station 7, Figs. 1 and 14, the requisite number of cores for the mould have been blown and gassed in a multiple cavity core box 45, 46. The box is then lowered by short stroke pistons in cylinders 49 and a diaphragm assembly, Figs. 17 or 18, is inserted between the blow plate and the core box top and expanded to urge the diaphragm into the core blow openings to cause the cores to be ejected from the core box top 46 as the table 47 is lowered. The lower part 45 of the core box with the cores therein is received by, and held by vacuum to a carrier 48 on the arm of the transfer device at station 6. The arm rotates to invert the cores and place them between the cope and drag moulds at the assembly station 5. The drag mould 43 is then raised into contact with the cores 45a by lifters 55a, Fig. 10, pressure air is supplied through the core box carrier 48 to force the cores out of the core box bottom 45 so that they are properly seated in the drag mould as the lifters 55a are lowered. The core box carrier 48 then returns to station 7 and the lifters are raised to bring the drag mould and seated cores into contact with the cope mould to close the mould, the vacuum to the cope mould carrier being cut off so that as the lifters 55a are lowered the completed mould is lowered with them. The particular drag arm is then caused to rotate say 90 degrees to a discharge station where the completed mould is pushed off the carrier 41 to a conveyer for casting.