Patent ID: 8327916

Claim:
An apparatus for core gas removal in a low-pressure cylinder head die casting operation, the apparatus comprising: an upper die; a lower die; an ejector plate disposed above the upper die to eject a part that has been casted; a plurality of tight plugs fastened into cavities formed in the upper die, the tight plugs protruding from the upper die by approximately 10 mm to provide a sealing surface with a casting core so as to prevent molten metal from traveling through the tight plugs; and a plurality of clean pins attached to the ejector plate, each clean pin corresponding to a location of one of the tight plugs, wherein the clean pins and the tight plugs have matching geometries, the ejector plate lowers to eject a casted cylinder head from the upper die such that a portion of the clean pins extend axially into the tight plugs to clean core gas residue formed on inner walls of the tight plugs during a casting cycle, and sides of the clean pins have a clearance of 1-2 mm from the inner walls of the tight plugs when the clean pins are lowered into the tight plugs.