Patent ID: 8230898

Claim:
A molding apparatus for producing an upper and a lower flaskless mold, the molding apparatus comprising: two pairs of a cope flask and a drag flask, each pair having a sand-filling inlet on a sidewall; a match plate to be transferred to and from the space between one of the pairs of the cope and the drag flask by a transfer mechanism; a squeezing mechanism for squeezing molding sand, which holds the match plate between the pair of the cope and the drag flask, and has an upper and a lower squeezing means that is insertable into an opening where there is no match plate, and is constructed such that the pair of the cope and the drag flask which is holding the match plate rotates from a perpendicular position to a horizontal position in a substantially perpendicular plane around a horizontal shaft; a rotating means to rotate the squeezing mechanism clockwise and counterclockwise; a sand-filling mechanism to feed molding sand through the sand-filling inlet into the pair of the cope and the drag flask which is disposed at the perpendicular position by the rotating means; a mold-stripping mechanism to strip the upper and lower molds made of the molding sand from the cope and the drag flasks which are stacked together and disposed in a horizontal state, containing the upper and lower molds; a flask-rotation mechanism to alternately transfer the two pairs of the stacked cope and the drag flask between the squeezing mechanism and the mold-stripping mechanism in a circular motion, having a means to lift and lower the cope flask; and a core-setting apparatus having: a core-handling tool that holds and releases a core therefrom with a clamping mechanism or a suctioning mechanism: a first carrier which carries the core-handling tool, said first carrier being moveable between a first position where the core-handling tool is outside of the mold-stripping mechanism and a second position where the core-handling tool is under the cope flask after the cope flask is lifted by means of the flask-rotation mechanism while the cope flask is positioned at the mold-stripping mechanism; a second carrier that supports the first carrier and the core-handling tool in the first position; a transferring mechanism disposed on the second carrier that transfers the first carrier and the core-handling tool back and forth between the first position where the first carrier is supported by the second carrier and the second position where the first carrier is supported by the cope flask, so that in the second position the first carrier is removed from and is no longer supported by the second carrier, and a controlling means for controlling the core-handling tool and the transferring mechanism.