Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1929-07-07

precision manufacturing operations
in relation to their own field in the
new Oakland-Pontiac engine build
ing and assembly plants.
To achieve high quality in mate
rial, a laboratory in charge Of ex-
perienced chemists is maintained
adjacent to the melting and cast
ing room, so that a constant check
may be made to assure uniformity
in the molten metal and the re-
sulting casting.
Splendid ventilating systems keep
the air fresh and pure at all times,
and the core oven and mixing
looms resemble gigantic bakeries
with their machinery clean and
bright. rather than the dust-laden
foundries of other years.
Miles of c%onveyors and over
head monorail trolleys simplify the
processes of casting and material
handling from the raw state to the
finished part ready for the car as
sembly lines.
Pig iron, scrap and other raw
metal is moved from the storage
yards to the cupola room by DOW
erful ten ton magnets operating
from an go span travelling crane.
Five different grades of metal. each
accurately weighed by a new pro-
cess to assure uniformity in uuan-
tlty, are then emptied into huge
tWo-ton buckets for the Charging"
OF the cupolas. There are two hot
blast and two cold blast cupolas.
each one rearing three stories in
the air, and each with a CAPACITY
OF twenty tons Of molten metal an
hour. The molten metal is heated
to over 2700 degrees Fahrenheit be-
lore pouring. In this process, one
ton, or approximately 10000 cubic
1eet OF air are used in making n
ton Of metal.
Alternate layers of metal and 2
mixture Of coke and limestone are
used to charge the cupoIas. One
man can charge two cupolas. while
formerly many operators were re-
CURED when the work Of charging
was done by hand.
Sand for core-making IS stored
in huge bins with a CAPACITY of
40 carloads. Sand is unloaded
from the car and later taken from
storage, by a huge overhead crane.
After mixing, the core sand is TAX
en- to the core makers by an over
head trolley.
In erecting its core ovens, the
Oakland foundry has departed
from former practice and deyelop-
ed what are said to be the first
complete system of vertical ovens
IN the world. There are to be Is
Of these.
Earlier foundry men placed cores
on racks and pushed the racks into
horizontal ovens in much the man
ner that bread is pushed into
ovens. When thoroughly baked the
cores were removed and allowed To
cool.
In the Oakland foundry cores are
nodded and placed upon racks
which travel upward on an endless
belt through an oven which re-
sembles a gigantic ventilatinr
shaft. Automatic heat control
keeps this oven at a Temperatures
or $50 degrees. At the ton of the
oven the racks move into a similar
shaft and descend to the floor
passing through a cooling cham
per, So that when they again reach
the floor level they are ready for
inspection and assembly.
1nese new ovens occupy but one
fourth the space required bv the
horizontal ovens, and the cores re-
qulre much less handling than IN
Gel the former method.
cores are made largely of sand
ana linseed oil. In the mixing
room the sand, oil, water and sucb
oCher materials as are used orc
measured and mixed entirely IN
machinery, the operators control,
ing their tasks by levers ond
switches. After mixing. the ma+o-
tlal Is conveyed automatically tn
Inc core moulding rooms where Il
Is paced IN bins ready for use
Cores after being baked tn nro,-
q aroneSS and inspected are a.
Hlp!e IN forms and taken "a tho
FOUNDRY and placed in moIds IN
conveyor line where they move nas+
n ladies' from which molten ,,etoT
- poured into them. Molten meto1
7 Drought to this point by over
nedo crane, but the actual noIIr-
LIs from smaller ladies is done hv
When the metal has hardersd
speclal machines remove the forms
KNOCK away the waste sand avs
cores. and the castings are taLan
~ overhead conveyor to the clear
ing building where thew are sand
pasted and ground ready for dc
!lvery 70 the machine shops for fir
Isnlng and assembling into OaK-
IanG and Pontiac AUTOMOBILES
FURTHER manufacturing ecoro
mes VIII be effected by the onero-
? OF q foundry by the OakIand
Motor Car company" Mr.. Iefehv1a
explained. Reduction of trans
portation costs through brildina
adjacent to the Oakiand-Ponti.s
pants, parts formerly manufacc
Gured elsewhere and shinned y
rontiac, will prove an important
item In lowering costs" he aid
ana operation of jts ou-p f,,-L~~