IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTING IRON, STEEL, AND OTHER METAL INGOTS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by David Davies at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 21st February 1883.
•
DAVID DAVIES of Crumlin in the County of Monmouth, Mechanical Engineer,
IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTING IRON, STEEL, AND OTHER METAL INGOTS,'
The object of this invention is to improve the method of casting metals into
ingots, so as to make them as free as practicable from air-holes, scruff, gases, and
other impurities.
According to the present usual method of casting ingots in iron and steel, the
ingot moulds employed are made conical in form, and open at both ends, so that
they can be lifted direct off the ingots; they are generally from 5 to 6 feet in
length, and about 10 inches square at their smallest or upper end, and about 14
inches square at their larger or lower end. Theso moulds are placed vertically, on
stools or base-plates, with their largest ends downwards, so as to receive the molten
metal through their upper and smallest ends. It is however occasionally run into
the moulds through a git and runner underneath their lower and larger ends. It
will thus be seen that, whether the molten metal is run in through the upper or
lower end of the moulds, it is constantly rising upwards therein against the conical
sides of the moulds, which slope inwards from bottom to top, thus giving a
constantly decreasing area towards the upper or smallest end of the ingot; which
diminishing area tends to prevent the full and free escape of the gases and other
foreign matters, which imperatively require an uninterrupted and easy escape in
order to prevent gases and other impurities being bound up in the ingots.
When ingots are thus cast, the usual method of stripping them is as follows:-
the mould is first lifted direct off the hot ingot, and placed on the floor; the ingot
is then raised from the casting pit to the floor; and afterwards the said mould
is replaced and adjusted on the bed-plate in the casting pit, ready for another
casting.
My improved method of casting metal ingots, so as to remove the prosent liability
of gases and other impurities being bound up within the ingots, and to make them
more solid and consequently more valuable is to cast them the reverse way; that
is to say, with their smallest ends downward, and their larger ends uppermost. By
this method it will be understood that, as the molten metal rises from the bottom
upwards in the mould, the gases have more freedom to expand and to escape at the

page_text: constantly enlarging surface of the molten metal, in consequence of the inverted
conical sides of the mould sloping outwards.
It will be understood that, by casting ingots with the large end uppermost, it
will be most convenient to lift each ingot, or group of ingots, direct out of their
moulds. For this purpose, I make the upper or larger end of the mould with
recessed slots in the faces thereof, opposite each other, which slots are fitted with
moveable slide-pieces, or are filled with stiff clay, loam, sand, or other suitable
material, to make the surface of the mould even. When the mould is run full of
molten metal, above the bottom of these slots, the said moveable slide-pieces, or
earthy materials, are removed; thus leaving the said spaces open, into which the
jaws or nips of the tongs are inserted to take hold of the top of the ingot for lifting
it vertically out of the mould and depositing it upon the floor; and so leaving the
mould, which may be keyed, bolted, or fixed by jaws to the bed-plate, adjusted in
its place in the casting pit, ready for the next casting. The ingots are thus stripped
and lifted on to the floor by one lift, with a crane, in place of requiring three lifts
as in the ordinary way. Of course the mould, with the ingot therein, can be
reversed, when desired, and be stripped in the usual way.
When desirable I make the large or upper end of the mould recessed with pockets
for moveable filling-pieces, or clay stopping, or with a recessed bell-mouth to receive
a loose moveable sleeve, that will reduce the size of the end and admit the jaws of
the tongs for taking hold of the upper end of the ingot."
.1
When it is desired to cast ingots near the same size at each end thereof, but
larger in the middle or at an intermediate-part of the body, so that they will slip.
out of the moulds, I make the moulds, for casting such ingots in two parts; the
method of stripping them would be as follows:-The upper portion of the
compound mould would first be lifted off the ingot, and be put in a convenient
place; then the entire ingot would be lifted vertically out of the lower portion of
such mould; which latter would remain fixed in its place, in the casting pit.
These lower portions of the compound moulds may be cast singly or in groups
of any number together.