Patent GB-1173767-A (GB)
Title: Machine for Casting and Stacking Ingots
IPC: B22D5/00
Filed: 1966-12-05
Abstract: 1,173,767. Ingot-casting machines. PECHINEY COMPAGNIE DE PRODUITS CHIM. IQUES ET ELECTROMETALLURGIQUES. 5 Dec., 1966 [7 Dec., 1965; 6 Jan., 1966; 11 Aug., 1966], No. 54321/66. Heading B3F. [Also in Divisions B8, F1 and F4] For casting ingots 10, a machine, e.g. having wheels 510 at the rear and blocks 513 or jacks at the front for mobility has: (1) a tiltable pouring trough 237, Fig. 2, with subdivisions each ending in a spout 233 and corresponding to the number of cooling- jacketed moulds 110 or a mould group 101, 102 or 103, the moulds having ingot ejectors 111 raised by a jack 114; (2) a carriage 310 slung beneath rails 301, 302, Fig. 2, and having jaws 323, 324 opened momentarily by the rising ingot 10 of a mould group, Fig. 11, but closing again to support and convey the group of ingots when the carriage is driven by motor and gear 335 to the rear of the machine where a movable stop 341, Fig. 1, or fixed stop (345), Fig. 6 (not shown), contacts the leading ingot so that the ingots close up together; (3) a table 411, Fig. 1 (with rollers or rails 415 on which the ingots can slide), raised by a jack 423 to lift the group of ingots off the jaws 323, 324 (while the carriage 310 returns to the casting zone ready to receive a further group of ingots), and lowered and turned, by a motor 414, through a right angle about a central vertical axis ready for raising to receive the further group of ingots and so on until there is formed a stack 30 of crossed layers of ingots; and (4) a discharge device, which may be a jack 431 and ram 432 for pushing the ingot stack 30 on to rollers or a conveyer belt. An alternative stack-discharge arrangement, Figs. 7, 8, 15, 16 (not shown), has a plate (440) for lifting and transferring the stack 30 on to a conveyer (459). There are fins in the cooling jacket around the mould cavity 119. As shown, a mould group consists of several cavities 119 in a common outer jacket 120 with internal partitions 121 having openings for coolant flow. By pouring less metal into the cavities, as determined automatically by contact pins in the cavities, shallower ingots (20), Fig. 3 (not shown), without lifting lugs 15, 16, are produced. In order to steady the smaller ingots, there may be auxiliary jaws (321, 322), to engage beneath projections 13, 14 on the ingots which eventually lock the ingots in the stack. To determine the upper and lower positions of the stacking table 411, photo-senstive or magneto-sensitive detectors or mechanical feelers 417, 419 are used. The metal-pouring trough 237, Fig. 2, is first tilted quickly by a jack 212 pivoting its support 220 about a shaft 211 and then tilted slowly about a shaft 221 on the support 220 by a jack 222. There may be several troughs 237, one for each mould group 101, 102 and 103, or a single trough which is moved to a furnace (90) for replenishment and successively to the mould groups for pouring. The machine is operated (see Division F1) by pneumatic or hydraulic jacks and motors, Figs. 17-21 (not shown), controlled and coordinated by electric circuits, Figs. 22-29 (not shown), entirely automatically or by manual control of valves and switches. Pulses from an emitter (990), Fig. 25 (not shown), each control the extraction (from the moulds) of one group of ingots.