IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING MOULDS FOR CASTING METALS
Year: 1866

page_text: the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th January
1866.
I, WILLIAM THOMAS, the younger, of Dudley, in the County of Worcester,
Accountant Clerk, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING MOULDS FOR CASTING METALS," to be
as follows:
My Invention consists of the mechanical arrangements herein-after described
for making moulds for casting metals, whereby the said moulds are made with
great facility and dispatch without or mainly without the aid of manual
labour.
My Invention is particularly applicable to the making of moulds for casting
small articles such, as railway chairs, axle boxes, covers for insulators, and
small toothed wheels; but my said Invention may also be applied to the
making of moulds for casting large articles.
The parts of the machinery constituting my Invention are constructed and
arranged essentially as follows:-The mould box rests upon a horizontal table
made in halves, the said halves being capable of separating from each other to
permit of the passage of the pattern into the mould box. The said halves of
the table slide upon and are supported by a quadrant bar fixed to the framing
of the machine. On either side of and at a higher level than the table is a
rail fixed to the framing of the machine, upon which rails the mould box is
supported and slides, projecting snugs or either side the mould box resting on

page_text: warm.
the said rails. An opening is made in the bottom of the mould box of a size
sufficient to allow of the passage through it of the pattern chair or other
article to be moulded. An empty mould box having been brought over the
horizontal table the said mould box is fixed in that position by means of a
locking pin on either side of the box passing through a hole in the rail and
taking into a hole in a projection on the side of the mould box. The pattern
to be moulded is fixed to a vertical rod or tube moved up and down by a lever.
When a tube is employed its lower ends work steam-tight in a cylinder to
which steam is admitted. The steam from the. cylinder passes. by the said
tube to the pattern, which I prefer to make hollow, and keeps the said pattern
The pattern may be affixed to a plate, and the pattern and plate
raised and lowered by the lever described. Above the mould box is a roller,
the bottom of which is in a line with the top of the mould box. The roller
is as broad as the horizontal table, and is carried by a reciprocating bar, the
roller being made to traverse the open top of the mould box and press the
sand therein. After the roller has moved across the box and has made its
return motion, a rammer having projections or teeth on its under side descends
and rams the sand in the box. The said rammer is raised and allowed to
descend by the motion of the pressing roller as herein-after explained.
Scrapers may be attached to the shaft of the roller for clearing away the sand
from the edges of the box. In moulding large patterns the rammer may be
connected to a swivel or joint to permit of the said rammer acting upon every
part of the mould being formed.
The action of the machine is as follows:-An empty mould box having
been brought over the horizontal table described, the said box is fixed by the
advance of the locking pins on either side of it. The pattern is raised into
the mould box, and the halves of the table closed so as firmly to support the
pattern during the moulding operation. Sand is next supplied to the box
either by hand, or by an elevator, or by other mechanical means, in combination
or not with a riddle or shaker. The pressing roller now moves across the box
pressing the sand therein, the motion of the roller alternating with that of the
rammer. The mould having been made, the roller and rammer remain
stationary, the halves of the table open, the pattern is removed from the
mould, and finally the locking pins are withdrawn from the mould box. The
mould being removed from the machine on the horizontal rails, another empty
mould box is put in its place upon the table, and the operations described are
repeated.
.
The several motions of the machine are effected in the following manner:
The ends of the halves of the table are connected to vertical shafts, the lower

page_text: parts of which shafts carry pinions or portions of pinions. Between these
shafts a horizontal bar works, the said bar having a rack on either side, the
rack on one side gearing with the pinion on one shaft, and the opposite
rack with the pinion on the other shaft. A reciprocating motion is given to
the rack bar by a lever acted upon by a box cam, and the halves of the table
opened and closed at the proper times. The rising and falling motions of the
rod or tube carrying the pattern are effected by a cranked lever acted upon by
a box cam. The motions of the locking pins for locking the mould box are
effected by a cranked lever actuated by a box cam, the motion being trans-
mitted through levers and connecting rods. The reciprocating motion of the
bar carrying the pressing roller is effected by a cranked lever worked from a
shaft parallel with that carrying the box cams described, and the raising and
liberating of the rammer are effected by the pressing roller coming against the
ends of cranked levers. When the roller first moves across the mould box it
operates upon a cranked lever, and through it raises the rammer, the said
rammer being maintained in its raised position by the hooked ends of a pair
of levers connected through a rod and shaft to another cranked lever. On the
return of the roller to its original position it operates upon the last-named
cranked lever and releases the rammer, which falls and rams the sand in the
mould box. The several cams described are fixed on the principal shaft of
the machine, from which also the crank actuating the pressing roller is
driven.