IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING MOULDS FOR CASTING, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR."
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Boyd and Thomas Alexander Boyd, of
Shettleston, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineers, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING MOULDS FOR CASTING, AND
IN APPARATUS THEREFOR."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left. by the said John Boyd and
Thomas Alexander Boyd at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 8th June 1874.
We, JOHN BOYD and THOMAS ALEXANDER BOYD, of Shettleston,-in
the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineers, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING MOULDS
FOR CASTING, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the economising of foundry plant,
whilst securing accuracy and uniformity in a simple manner. It is most
advantageously applicable where a number of articles have to be cast off
the same patterns, and may be adopted with either machine moulding
or hand moulding.

page_text: In carrying out the Invention with two flasks the top and bottom
flask are rammed upon opposite sides of the same plate, a part of the
pattern or patterns being on one side of the plate and the remainder on
the other side.
The two parts of the patterns may be on separate plates, but when a
single plate is used some labour can be saved in turning over.
The flasks consist as usual of iron frames, having cross webs or bars
when the size makes this necessary, but the sides and any permanent
cross bars are made parallel and smooth or with an internal bevil, which
when the two flasks are put together is continuous through both, so that
both can be lifted away from the mould. The ramming is done in the
ordinary way, and the flasks with the mould formed in them are placed
in position as usual on the foundry floor, but instead of the flasks
remaining with each mould until after the casting operation, they are
at once lifted, the internal bevil herein-before referred to admitting of
this, and can be used for making a succession of moulds for the same
casting operation.
In some cases it is necessary before ramming to insert movable cross
bars through holes in the side of the flask to support the sand or mould
material whilst handling the flasks, and in such cases after the flasks are
placed in position these movable bars are withdrawn before lifting off
the flasks. Or temporary supports may be provided in any other con-
venient way. The same system is obviously applicable when a mould
is made in three flasks, or with two or more partings.
In addition to the obvious advantage of the improved system that one
set of flasks can be made to serve for a large number of moulds, hereto-
fore employing an equal number of sets of flasks, there are the following,
namely, that the moulding plate has to be adjusted and fitted to only
one set of flasks instead of to a larger number, that the moulds are all
exactly alike, and that the castings afterwards be more easily got out
of the sand than when the sand remains confined in flasks.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Boyd and Thomas Alexander Boyd in the
Great Scal Patent Office on the 8th December 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, JOHN
BOYD and THOMAS ALEXANDER BOYD, of Shettleston, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Eighth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said John Boyd and Thomas
Alexander Boyd, Her special licence that we, the said John Boyd
and Thomas Alexander Boyd, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said John Boyd and Thomas Alexander
Boyd, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, usc, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING MOULDS FOR CASTING, AND IN APPARATUS
THEREFOR," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
John Boyd and Thomas Alexander Boyd, our executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of
their hands and scals, should particularly describe and ascertain tho
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Boyd and Thomas Alexander
Boyd, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement in writing, reference
being had to the accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
Our said Invention has for its object the economising of foundry plant
whilst securing accuracy and uniformity in a simple manner. It is
most advantageously applicable where a number of articles have to be

page_text: In the modification shown in Figures 1, 2, 3, the duplex pattern
plate 3 is formed with trunnions, which are held in bearings in the
upper ends of brackets 6, springing from a central block 7, which is
arranged to move vertically, being guided by two rods 8 fixed to the
framing and passing cach through two of four bored lugs formed on the
block 7. The framing consists of a hollow pedestal 9 fixed on a base
plate 10, and having fixed on its top a table 11, which last bas horizontal
guides formed on its upper side for a board or plate 12, to be hercin-
after referred to. The central block 7 is suspended by a chain or
strap 13, which passes over a pulley 14 carried within the pedestal 9 to
a stirrup piece 15, this stirrup piece being box shaped, so as to embrace
or cover part of the rim of the pulley 14, and having attached to its
lower end if necessary an additional weight to counterbalance more or
less of the weight acting on the inner side of the pulley 14. Pro-
jections 10 are formed at the sides of the stirrup picce, and the workman
puts his foot on one of these when wishing to clevate the plate 3 and
whatever is attached thereto. In using this apparatus the bottom
flask 2 is placed on the board 12, when this has been drawn out (or
towards the right hand side in Figures 1 and 2), and the duplex pattern
plate 3 being then clevated the flask is passed under it, after which tho
pattern plate is lowered so that the guide pins 17, fixed to lugs on the
sides of the flask 2, enter holes provided for them in the pattern plate 3.
The upper flask 1 is then put on the top of the pattern plate 3, being
guided into position by the entrance into lugs formed on its side of the
pins 17 of the bottom flask 2, and the flasks are then secured together
with the pattern plate between them by means of cutters entered
through the guide pins. The upper flask 1 is rammed, the pair of
flasks 1, 2, and plate 3 elevated and turned over, and the cutters being
taken from the pius 17, the plate 3 with the inverted bottom flask 2 on
it is raised from the top flask, which is moved outwards on the board 12
and then removed. Deeper cutters having been put through the pins 17
to secure the inverted bottom flask 2 to the plate 3, this flask is then
rammed, and the plate and flask are turned over and lowered down to
the board 12, after this is returned inwards; and finally the cutters
being again withdrawn the plate 3 is clevated, and the bottom flask 2
moved outwards on the board 12 and removed thence.
Figure 4 represents the pair of flasks 1, 2, as put together on the
1
1
1 A
T1

page_text: are shown in section in Figure 4, have their sides made with an internal
bevil, the internal surfaces of the upper flask 1 being flush or continuous
with those of the lower flask 2 or at any rate with no parts enclosing
greater horizontal area than the smallest part of the lower flask. This is
to admit of the two flasks 1, 2, being lifted, cither separately or together,
clearly away from the moulded sand within them, so as to leave the
mould on the foundry floor, as in Figure 5, in which two such moulds
are shown ready for casting, weighted plates being put on the top to
resist the pressure of the molten iron. If found desirable sand may bo
placed between the separate moulds to support the sides.
In order to retain the sand in the flasks whilst handling them, and
until the moulds are placed in position on the foundry floor, rods 18 arc
placed across the flasks before ramming, being entered through holes in
the sides of the flasks, and these rods are of course withdrawn before
lifting the flasks away from the moulds.
Any other convenient temporary supports may be used along with or
substituted for the rods 18.
Our improved system of removable flasks is obviously applicable when
a mould is made in three flasks, or with two or more partings.
In addition to the obvious advantage of the system that one set of
flasks can be made to serve for a large number of moulds, heretofore
employing an equally large number of sets of flasks, there are the
following, namely, that the moulding plate has to be adjusted and fitted
to only one set of flasks instead of to a large number; that the moulds
are all exactly alike; and that the castings can afterwards be more
casily got out of the sand than when the sand remains confined in
flasks.
Instead of having the duplex pattern plate 3 formed with trunnions,
as herein-before described with reference to Figures 1, 2, 3, the trunnions
may be upon a frame 19, upon which the duplex pattern plate 3 is to be
fixed, as shown in Figure 6. Or instead of a complete four-sided frame,
the trunnions may be upon end pieces 20, to which the duplex pattern
plate 3 is to be fixed, as shown in Figure 7. Again instead of thero
being trunnions on the plate 3, or on the parts 19 or 20,
these may
be
formed with sockets, into which pivot studs can be entered through
plain or screwed eyes in the brackets 6, and be fixed by pinching screws.

page_text: or otherwise, which arrangement will admit of pattern plates being very
casily changed. A stop pin 21 is provided for securing the duplex
pattern plate to the brackets 6 in a horizontal position with either side
uppermost, such pin being held in a lug formed for it in one of the
brackets 6, and being movable into one or other of two holes provided
for it on opposite parts of the pattern plate 3 or of the piece 19 or 20.
Our improved duplex pattern plate 3 may be used with any convenient
apparatus arranged for turning it, and for separating it and the rammed
flasks, and its use is advantageous in moulding by means of such
apparatus with ordinary flasks, or with hinged or other kinds of flasks
differing from our improved kind.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention and the manner
of performing the same, we have to state that we do not restrict
ourselves to the precise details herein described or delineated, but that
what we believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention
secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The lifting of pairs or sets of mouldings flasks away from the
completed moulds, and the constructing or shaping of the flasks for that
purpose, substantially in the manner herein-before described.
2. The using of a duplex pattern plate, substantially in the manner
and for the purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Boyd, on behalf of myself
and the said Thomas Alexander Boyd have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JOHN BOYD. (L.S.)