Improvements in Moulding Machines for Foundry Use.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 11th May, 1897-Accepted, 10th July, 1897
[Communicated from abroad by HARRIS TABOR, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, U.S.A.,
and EDGAR H. MUMFORD, of Plainfield, Union County, New Jersey, U.S.A.]
Improvements in Moulding Machines for Foundry Use.
I, ARTHUR GEORGE BROWN, of 38 Victoria Buildings, Manchester, Lancashire,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained, in and by
the following statement: -
My invention, relating to improvements in metal founding machines, will be
readily understood from the following description taken in connection with the
accompanying drawings in which :-
Fig. 1, is a front elevation of a metal founding machine embodying my
improvements;
Fig. 2, a side elevation of the same;
Fig. 3, a vertical longitudinal section of the rapping engine in the plane of
line c of Fig. 5:
Fig. 4, a vertical longitudinal section of main portions of the machine in the
plane of line b of Figs. 2, 5, 6, and 8.
Fig. 5, a vertical transverse section of the same, in the plane of line of
Figs. 1, 4, and 6;
Fig. 6, a plan of the pattern plate, provided with pattern;
Fig. 7, a vertical longitudinal section of the same in the plane of line b of
Figs. 6 and 8;
Fig. 8, a vertical transverse section of the same in the plane of line
and 7; and
Fig. 9, a front elevation of one of the supports for the rapping
rapping-frame appearing in vertical longitudinal section.
The patterns and stools are shown only in Figs. 6, 7, and 8.
In the drawings:-
of Figs. G
frame, the
1, indicates a vertical piston having a base by means of which it may be
supported upon the floor or upon suitable trucks:
2, a cylinder inverted over this piston and adapted for vertical motion thereon
when steam or compressed air is admitted to the cylinder over the piston;
3, (best seen in Figs. 4 & 5) the cylinder head having the form of a large
rectangular plate having a hub capping over the upper end of the cylinder and
igidly secured thereto, as by screws;
4, studs projecting rigidly up from the base of piston 1;
5, stiff arms projecting out diagonally from the cylinder near its upper end;
6, arms projecting out from the lower end of the cylinder and having eyes
engaging studs 4 which therefore act as guide studs for the cylinder and prevent
its turning upon the piston, studs 4 projecting upwardly between the pairs of
arms 5;
7, caps over the upper ends of studs 4 and having flanges secured to the arms 5
of the cylinder;

page_text: 8, tubes surrounding studs 4 and extending from caps 7 down to arms 6 so as to
form a complete enclosure for the upper portion of studs 4;
9, springs upon the upper ends of studs. 4' and engaging between the roofs of
caps and shoulders on studs 4,, these springs serving as elastic abutments as the
cylinder descends on the piston, the descent being limited by cylinder head 3
engaging the top of the piston ;
10, conduit to admit steam or compressed air to the cylinder over the piston,
this conduit extending up through the piston and being adapted to be piped from
any suitable source of supply of steam or compressed air, such piping to be pro-
vided with suitable valves for controlling the inflow and outflow of the pressure
medium, as is usual in metal founding machines;
11, fingers projecting rigidly upward from the rectangular margin of cylinder-
heau 3;
12, a rectangular frame resting upon the upper ends of fingers 11, this frame
being the flask supporting frame;
13, a crankshaft journalled across over cylinder-head 3 and having a crank arm
at each end;
14, links connecting such crank arms with flask-supporting frame 12;
15, a hand lever on the crank-shaft, its hub being provided with a couple of
detent teeth;
16, a pawl lever adapted to engage the detent teeth of lever 15, the arrangement
being obviously such that, while flask-supporting frame 12 is resting on fingers 11,
if the crank-shaft be turned the frame 12 will be raised, and maintained in raised
position by pawl 16, the release of the pawl permitting the flask-supporting
frame 12 to again go down upon the fingers;
17, studs projecting upwardly from arms 5 of the cylinder toward flask-supporting
frame 12;
18, downwardly open sockets secured to the under surface of flask-supporting
frame 12 and engaging over guide studs 17, these sockets and studs therefore
forming vertical guides for flask-supporting frame 12 as it rises from and returns
to the fingers;
19, brackets projecting up from rectangular cylinder head 3 and extending
inwardly beyond flask-supporting frame 12;
20, a rectangular frame, called the rapper frame, secured to brackets 19 and
having its upper surface somewhat below the upper surface of flask-supporting
frame 12 when the latter frame is down on fingers 11, rapper frame 20 coming
within the area margined by frame 12;
21, vertical bolts securing rapper-frame 20 to brackets 19;
22, (Fig. 9) elastic bushings, as of rubber around bolts 21 where they pass
through rapper plate 20, whereby the rapper plate, while held to a normal relation-
ship of brackets 19 is capable of slight horizontal motion with reference to the
brackets;
23, the pattern plate, being a flat plate separably but rigidly secured to the top
of rapper frame 20, the edges of this pattern-plate fitting within flask-supporting
frame 12 with some freedom, and the upper surface of the pattern plate coming
flush with the upper surface of flask-supporting frame 12 when the latter is down
on fingers 11;
24, fingers alongside fingers 11 but further inward and with their upper ends
on a somewhat lower plane, so as to engage under a given vertical support to
rapper frame 20 and pattern plate 23, such support being additional and
intermediate to that furnished by brackets 19;
25, (Fig. 3) the cylinder of the rapping Engine, rigidly secured to rapper-
frame 20;
26, a piston free to play endwise, within this cylinder;
27, inlet for steam or compressed air to the cylinder, the entry to the cylinder
being by a pair of ports straddling the mid-length of the cylinder;
28, a pair of circumferential grooves in piston 26, dividing that piston into. a

page_text: central and two end portions, the central portion having such length as, to always
be straddled by the ports from inlet 27 and the grooves having such width and
disposition that when the piston is at one extremity of its stroke the piston member
at the opposite end of the piston will cover its inlet port and have some lap;
29, a passage extending through each end member of the piston and placing
each end of the cylinder in communication with one of the grooves in the piston;
30, anvils secured to the inner surface of each cylinder head, the cylinder heads
being screwed into the cylinder and the anvils being formed preferably of hardened
steel as is also the piston;
31, exhaust ports communicating alternately with the grooves in the piston and
covered alternately by the central member of the piston with some lap, the con-
struction being obviously such that, with the parts in the position shown in
Fig. 3, the pressure medium acts on the left hand end of the piston, throwing the
piston to the right against the right hand anvil, the motion of the piston soon
cutting off the left-hand supply port and opening the left-hand exhaust port
and opening the right-hand supply-port where upon the piston becomes thrown
against the left-hand anvil, the piston thus rapidly reciprocating;
32, (Figs. 6, 7, and 8) the half patterns secured to the upper face of pattern.
plate 20, thus forming a match-plate;
33, a stoolplate disposed below rapper-plate 20;
34, arms extending from this stool-plate upwardly into rigid attachment with
flask-supporting frame 12, stool-plate 33 thus presenting the aspect of a greatly
depressed central portion of the flask-supporting frame 12;
35, a patch disposed in a mortise in pattern-plate 23 and having its upper
surface against the sand surface, this patch having its base resting on stool-plate 33,
the patch being shown as in position to come between pattern elements but free
of contact with them, patch-plate 35 appearing in the exemplification as a longi-
tudinal piece occupying a position between four pattern elements where sand may
need support as the patterns are separated from the sand;
36, a second patch plate, like the one previously referred to except that it is
small and cylindrical, occupying a position with reference to pattern elements
where the circular form is suitable;
37, the half-flask, resting upon flask-supporting frame 12 around the joint
formed between frame 12 and pattern-plate 23;
38, the usual sand-box set over the half-flask to hold sand to allow for
compression;
39, top bridgetree of the machine, disposed across over the flask etc.;
40, the rammer, being a plate secured to the bridgetree and adapted to compress
the sand down into the half-flask and out of sand-box 38;
41, springs supported under the bridgetree and adapted to engage over
sand-box 38; and
42, the usual radius bars pivoted at the base of the machine and supporting the
top bridgetree and permitting the bridgetree and its connected parts to be swung
back as usual in machines of this class.
Normally cylinder-head 3 is down against the upper end of its piston and
pattern plate 23 is flush with flask supporting frame 12. The half-flask is to be
set upon the flask supporting frame 12, sand-box 38 set upon the half flask, and
the half-flask and sand-box properly filled with sand. The bridgetree is then
brought forward so that rammer 40 will come to working position over the sand-
box. Steam or air is now admitted to the cylinder causing everything carried
by the cylinder to rise suddenly. The rising action causes rammer 40 to press
the sand out of the sand-box and compactly into the half-flask over the patterns
and pattern plate. The action is that of a sudden blow, and in some kinds of
work the second ramming is found desirable. As the sand becomes pressed out
of the sand-box into the half-flask there is little resistance to the continued upward
motion of the sand-box by momentum, after the other parts have completed their
up stroke. It is the office of springs 41 to check the momentum of the sand-box.

page_text: The ramming having been completed, and the parts being again down in normal
position, hand-lever 15 is now to be actuated, the result being that the half-flask
is elevated away from the pattern plate and pattern, which remain down in normal
position. This causes the drawing of the patterns from the sand and leaves the
flask supported in its elevated position by the action of pawl lever 16 engaging
one of the teeth on the hub of lever 15, one of the teeth pertaining to patterns
calling for a shallow draw, and the other tooth pertaining to patterns
calling for a deeper draw. The half-flask may now be removed from the machine.
Pawl-lever 16 being released permits the flask-supporting frame to descend again
to its fingers, and the machine is then ready to receive another half-flask.
While the patterns are being drawn the rapping engine is to be in action, the
hammering of its piston upon the anvils giving to the rapper plate and patterns
a jar or shiver represented by several thousand strokes per minute on the part of
the rapping engine. This rapping action frees the patterns and permits of their
clean sharp withdrawal from the sand.
By inspecting Fig. 6 it will be observed that there are locations, represented by
the patches 35 & 36 where unsupported sand might tend to fall. This is prevented
by the patches 35 and 36 which go up with the sand as the mold moves up from
the patterns and pattern plate. Should stripping plates be employed in the usual
manner, there could of course be no fall of sand, but stripping plates and corre-
sponding patterns are very expensive affairs. In my improved system I use no
stripping plates and no special patterns, the pattern plate and its attached patterns
costing no more than an ordinary match-plate. Where sand requires extra support
between the patterns we mortise the pattern-plate, giving the mortise a shape
suited to the conditions and keeping the margins of the mortises away from the
patterns. These mortises are then filled by correspondingly shaped patches resting
on the stool-plate and free for movement through the mortises. The form and
disposition of the patches will of course vary with the form of the patterns. In
many cases the mortises may be merely properly disposed round holes through
the pattern-plate and patched by simple round plugs resting their lower ends
upon the stool-plate.
The upper ends or surfaces of these patches are to reach to the sand surface of
the face of the mould, which surface may be at the surface of the pattern-plate
between patterns, or it may be at the pattern itself, if the form of the pattern is
such that sand needs special support above the pattern. In the latter case the
patches will go also through some portion of the pattern. The general idea is,
after finding points over any portion of the pattern-plate which require extra
support for the sand, to put a hole or mortise through the pattern-plate at that
point, and provide a patch in such hole or mortise with its upper surface in
position to support the sand at such point when the pattern separates from the
sand.
In practice it is found that this simple and cheap expedient, adding but a trifle
to the cost of a match-plate, gives results as satisfactory as elaborately fitted
stripping plates. In practice cases have arisen where to embody the stripping
plate system would cost hundreds of pounds for a given set of patterns and require
weeks of time in their preparation, while with the system now under consideration
the ordinary wooden patterns could be employed, and could be mounted on their
pattern plates and properly provided with patches in a few hours time and at
trifling expense.
It is to be observed that in the construction of our machine there are few places
to catch sand where it can do harm. The upper ends of the fingers are bevelled
so as to readily shed sand, the cylinder 2 is inverted over an upstanding piston so
as to present iio opening upwardly, and the various guide sockets are inverted
over upstanding guide-studs.
The supporting fingers 11 have their upper ends bevelled so as to readily shed
sand which might work between them and the flask supporting frame. Ordinarily,
little or no trouble will arise from sand accumulating at these points, but in

page_text: special cases we guard against any trouble in this respect by means of guards
inside and outside the fingers as illustrated in Fig. 5. From the outer edge of
the flask supporting frame depends a curtain 43, which may be of leather, such
curtain being continuous around the machine or in sections of sufficient extent
to properly guard the fingers from the approach of sand inwardly. Some sand
may work down between the pattern plate and the flask-supporting frame, and
the entry of such sand over the fingers may be prevented by the guard strip 44,
which may be of thin metal, this strip extending around so as to guard all of the
fingers, or each finger having its individual guard strip of suitable width.
In the drawings and general description consideration has been given to fully
equipped moulding machines, that is to say the ramming is done by power. But
it will be obvious that the ramming head and the ramming piston may be dispensed
with and the machine employed as a hand machine. Thus, in Fig. 1, after the
sand has been shovelled in the ramming is done by power. Assume that the
ramming is done with the usual hand rammer. In such case handle 15 may be
employed in elevating the flask to effect the withdrawal of the pattern.
benefits of the rapper engine and of the supporting patches may be obtained
regardless of whether the ramming is done by hand or power.
The
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of this my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. In a metal founding machine, the combination, substantially as set forth,
of a downwardly presenting ramming head, an upstanding piston supported on a
base centrally below said ramming head, a sliding cylinder disposed on said piston
and open at its upper end, and having a cylindrical exterior surface at its upper
end, a plate disposed over the upper end of said cylinder and secured thereto and
projecting outwardly from said cylinder at all sides to form a table substantially
corresponding in size with said ramming head, a hub integrally formed with said
plate and projecting downwardly therefrom and closely fitting the cylindrical
exterior of the upper end of the cylinder, and fingers or braces integrally formed
with said hub and plate and engaging the exterior of the hub and reaching
outwardly under said plate.
2. In a metal founding machine, the combination, substantially as set forth, of
an upstanding piston, a cylinder upon the piston and adapted for vertical move-
ment thereon and carrying guide-eyes, guide-studs projecting upwardly from the
piston base and engaging said guide-eves, and caps carried by said cylinder and
covering the upper ends of said guide-studs.
3. In a metal founding machine, the combination, substantially as set forth, of
an upstanding piston, a cylinder upon the piston and adapted for vertical. move-
ment thereon, stationary guide-studs projecting upwardly rigidly from the piston
base, guide eyes carried by the base of the cylinder and engaging said guide studs,
caps carried rigidly by the upper portion of the cylinder and disposed over the
upper ends of said guide studs, and springs disposed upon the guide-studs with
said caps and engaging the roofs of the caps.
4. In a metal founding machine, the combination, substantially as set forth,
of an upstanding piston, a cylinder upon the piston and adapted for vertical motion
thereon, guide-studs projecting upwardly from the piston base, guide eyes carried
by the base of the cylinder and engaging the guide studs, caps carried by the
upper portion of the cylinder and disposed over the upper ends of the guide-studs,
and tubes engaging said guide-eyes and caps and surrounding the immediate
portions of the guide studs.
5. In a metal founding machine, the combination, substantially as set forth,
of a downwardly presenting ramming-head, and opposing press member arranged
for vertical motion and adapted to support a flask and superposed sand-box, and
springs carried by said ramming head and adapted to engage over said sand-box.
6. In a metal founding machine, the combination, substantially as set forth,

page_text: of a flask supporting frame, a pattern-plate disposed within said flask supporting
frame and supported flush therewith, bolts serving in uniting said pattern-plate
to its support, and elastic bushings surrounding said bolts.
7. In a metal founding machine, the combination, substantially as set forth.
of a rapping engine comprising a cylinder having a pair of inlet ports, and having a
pair of exhaust ports disposed between the inlet ports, a middle piston-member
adapted to alternately uncover said exhaust-ports, end piston-members rigidly
connected with the middle piston-member and adapted to alternately uncover said
inlet ports, and having passages through them to and from their respective ends of
said cylinder, and anvils at the ends of the cylinder to arrest the motion of the
piston.
8. In a metal founding machine, the combination, substantially as set forth,
of a pattern-plate having patterns secured thereto and having mortises or apertures
through it between the patterns and away from the margins of the patterns,
patches fitting said mortises or apertures and adapted for movement upwardly
from the face of the pattern-plate, and supports for said patches below said
pattern-plate.
9. In a metal founding machine, the combination, substantially as set' forth,
ef a pattern plate having mortises or apertures between the patterns and. away
from the margins of the patterns, a flask supporting frame surrounding said
pattern-plate and normally supported flush therewith, patches fitting said mortises
or apertures in the pattern-plate and connected rigidly with said flask-supporting
frame, and mechanism adaptéed to move said flask supporting frame and said
patches vertically with reference to said pattern plate.
10. In a metal founding machine, the combination, substantially 'as set forth, 2
of a pattern-plate provided with mortises or apertures between the patterns and
away from the margins of the patterns, a flask supporting frame surrounding said
pattern-plate, patches fitting said mortises or apertures and supported below said
pattern-plate, mechanism for moving said flask supporting frame and said patches
vertically with relation to said pattern-plate, and a rapping engine adapted to
agitate said pattern-plate.
11. In a metal founding machine, the combination, substantially as set forth,
of a pattern-plate provided with mortises or apertures between the patterns and
away from the margins of the patterns, a flask supporting frame surrounding said
pattern-plate and supported normally flush therewith, and patches connected below
said pattern-plate with said flask supporting frame and having their upper surfaces
in position to engage the mold-sand over the points of location of said mortises or
apertures.
12. In a metal founding machine, the combination; substantially as set forth,
of a pattern-plate, a flask supporting frame surrounding said plate, fingers disposed
below said flask-supporting frame, and adapted to support said frame normally
flush with said pattern plate, and guard-strips at the sides of said fingers and
adapted to prevent the entry of sand between said frame and the upper ends of
said fingers.