JPH0394970A - Automatic casting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To automatically control a pouring station and to reduce such danger as miss-action of a mold by arranging a control means which controls the function of the pouring station based on a parameter while a mold related with the parameter stays at the pouring station. CONSTITUTION: Data received with a parameter unit 57 is transmitted to a calculating unit 52 and converted into plural control signals with the calculating unit 52 and transmitted to a control unit 53 and passed through a control line 5321 based on a part data related to the control of the pouring station 21 to control the function of this station. Therefore, in the case that the necessary core is not set in the objective data or the mold is not provided the necessary strength or imperfect information related to the mold is contained in some points, the outlet of molten metal in the pouring station 21 is closed and the molten metal is not poured into the objective mold.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to an automatic casting device according to the preamble of claim 1.

Previously known devices of this type, although labeled as ``automatic,'' required some degree of monitoring of the injection station to prevent malfunctions at this station.

Malfunctions at the station are associated with interruptions in operation. Even a small interruption can have serious consequences in this type of equipment.

Human supervision is not reliable enough, so automatic control at the injection station is required to avoid malfunctions. Such malfunctions can be caused by e.g.
Improper alignment of the mold inlet (gate) and the metal outlet of the injection station, resulting in some or all of the molten metal flowing out of the mold or onto the mold conveyor, e.g. Or, if several cores are missing and the mold is defective, a casting that cannot be used for its intended purpose may be produced.

The object of the invention is firstly to provide an automatic casting device. In automatic casting machines, the functioning of the pouring station is automatically controlled and the risk of malfunctioning of the mold or other molds is significantly reduced.

To achieve this objective, based on the invention, claim 1
A casting device designed and arranged as described in the characteristics section may be used.

This allows the device itself to record information about each mold and use this information to control the injection station when the mold that is the subject of the information comes to the injection station.

In the exemplary embodiment as claimed in claim 2, a flow of metal into the mold conveyor and into the casting bed is avoided, so that:
Significant results are obtained.

Using the exemplary embodiment according to claim 3, the cast metal
Can be poured into designated inlets of the mold.

The position of this inlet changes from one mold type to the next mold type, but from one mold type to another by having the parameter recording unit record information about the mold type. Correct injection is possible even if the

When a new batch of molten metal is injected at the injection station, as a result of the high operating rate of the equipment, many molds may begin pouring before the results of the samples taken from the new batch can be used.

If it turns out that the batch of molten metal is not of the prescribed mixture, the casting in question has to be eliminated.6 This can be easily realized by the exemplary embodiment of claim 4. In a specific example, this is accomplished by providing each individual mold with a mark that identifies the group of problems.

The identification symbol can be used to screen out molds with undesirable d-compound castings and is a means of an exemplary embodiment of claim 5.

Although it is not impossible to connect the parameter recording means to the control means using conventional wires, relays, etc.
Since the parameter signals sent to the parameter recording unit contain information about many different situations, it is desirable to use modern information technology for the implementation of the functions in question.

In particular, this allows us to remember information about most molds produced at the casting and preparation stations until they arrive at either the mold or the injection station, so that this information is correctly stored in the injection station at the time of the mold's arrival. Become relevant. The exemplary embodiment according to claim 6 presents this solution.

With the exemplary embodiment according to claim 7, it is no longer necessary to place identification marks directly on the mold, which is highly sensitive. Alternatively, an identification symbol may be placed on the information signal group or data entry in question.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the drawings, which show an exemplary embodiment of an automatic casting device. For example, devices are conceivable which are used to cast iron or iron alloy objects in molds of previously produced casting sand which are then poured into pieces and then crushed to reuse the casting sand.

The exemplary embodiment shown in the drawing of the automatic casting device according to the invention has been simplified as much as possible in order to make the control process that is the subject of the invention easier to understand.

The part of the apparatus in which injection and injection-related operations occur is shown below the drawing.A suitable mold material, such as mold sand, is worked up into a mold piece; At the end located on the right side of the drawing, the mold piece has a mold station 11 sent from the mold station and a core setting device 13 that places an arbitrary core into the mold made in the mold station 11. - a mold conveyor through which molds are conveyed from a mold station 11, in a manner generally known, molten metal is poured into the mold, and then the mold, including the poured metal, is conveyed to the mold conveyor 22. Apart from being able to advance the mold in the same direction as the injection station 21, which is moved further, it also increases the residence time of the mold and therefore the cooling time between the arrival and transport of the mold from the mold conveyor 22. In order to ensure that the castings, for example powder, are consolidated with a pair of switching conveyors 31 and 32 which are switched laterally so that either conveyor 3l or conveyor 32 is located following the mold conveyor 22, the castings are solidified, for example with powder, and have a longer cooling time. In particular, in order to ensure an appropriate amount of water in the mold sand produced by ejecting, the injected water is well mixed in the drum and separated from the mold and any core, and the ejected water exits the ejecting station. station 41 and - to reuse the mold sand in the mold station;
The molded, cooled and removed casting, as shown in the drawings, includes a sanding station 46, for example, where fresh mold sand, bentonite, carbon and/or other binders and/or additives are added and processed. is removed from the removal station 41 at the end shown at the bottom of the figure. In the drawing, the flow of metal through the injection station 21, the mold conveyor 22, the changeover conveyor 3l and the removal station 41 is shown in steps jl 4 m. On the other hand, the flow of the mold sand through the mold station l1, the mold conveyor 22, the switching conveyor 3l, the take-out station 41, and the sanding station 46 is indicated by two-dot chain lines.

Apart from the units mentioned, the equipment is classified into sorting station 4.
7, which is depicted as a "hole in the floor" at the transmission end of the switching conveyor 31 when in the 31° position indicated by the dashed line.
It is used to sort the molds with or without cast metal, and the molds do not need to be sent to the removal station 41 for any reason.

Additionally, the equipment shown is capable of producing water in the form of water, fresh mold sand,
Equipped with a device for adding binders, etc.

A water addition arrangement 42 which supplies water through a water addition vibrator 424l to a withdrawal station 41 (from the drawings, the numbers relating to the pipes or lines connecting the various units are indicated by the first two numbers indicating the function or flow to which they relate). is equal to the associated number of the equipment where it begins, and the last two numbers are the reference numbers of the unit receiving the associated flow or function). , a new sand addition unit 43 that supplies new mold sand, a binder addition unit 44 that supplies binder through a binder vibe 4446 to the sanding station 46, an additive line 4546 to the sanding station 46, Additive addition unit 4 that further supplies additives
5 All addition units 42 to 45 are controlled by control unit 5
3, and the control unit 53 is controlled by the individual control lines 534 2-4.3, as explained next.
5, the functions of the individual addition units are controlled.

The equipment in which the automation (!'11) functions included in the invention are carried out, apart from sensors, control converters, etc. not shown in the various stations or units, include the following:

- a parameter recording unit 51 - a calculation unit 52 a control unit 53 as described above a single data unit 54 a data display unit 55 The units 51 to 55 are generally integrated in a computer with a display, a keyboard, etc., as is known; Within a computer, various functions described herein are more or less integrated in hardware, or
In other ways than described here, the overall functionality remains unchanged.

The parameter recording unit 51 receives input data in the form of signals from:

Mold station 1 passing through one parameter line 115l
1 Core setting device 13 passing through one parameter line 1351 Injection station 2 passing through one parameter line 215l
1 - input data unit 54 through data input line 5451 Furthermore, the parameter recording unit 51 is adapted to send signals in the form of output data to the calculation unit 52.

The calculation unit 52 is adapted to receive the manual data signal from the parameter recording unit 5l as described above and performs the following functions.

A control unit 53 controls the output signal in the form of a plurality of control signals.
send to

- sending appropriate operating data to the data display unit 55 via data line 5255;

The control unit 53 is adapted to: receive a plurality of control signals from the calculation unit 52, as described above, and send the control signals in a first order manner.

Pass through Isei Wholesale Line 5321, Injection Station 21
One or more control lines 533], 5332 and as much as possible 5331' are passed through the switching conveyors 31 and 3.
2 through one control line 5347, one control line 5342 to sorting station 47, one control line 5343 to water addition unit 42, one control line 5344 to new sand addition unit 43, one control line 5344 to binder addition unit 44.
through a control line 5345 to the additive addition unit 45.
Of course, the device may have many parameters and/or lines or wires for functions other than those handled by the present invention.
(not shown).

NOTE Station 1'. In order to perform casting under optimum conditions within the injection station 21, the signals used to control the injection station must have a minimum of data with the following information:

- the shape of the mold as it arrives from the mold station 11 - whether the core setting device 13 has set the required core in the mold in question - whether the mold is solid enough to withstand pouring - whether the mold is Sensors in mold station 11 and core setting device 13 (
(not shown) generates signals in response to the described data, which signals are sent to the parameter recording unit 5l via parameter lines 1151 and 1351, respectively.

Data relating to each mold is collected in a data record and passed through the apparatus by appropriate circuits and/or programs in units 51 and 52 and preferably 53 to the mold station 11.
Then, each mold is poured into a take-out station 41.

The above data received by the parameter recording unit 51 is sent to the calculation unit 52;
The above plurality of control signals are changed into wholesale signals, and the control unit 5
3 and passes through the control line 532l to control one function of this station based on the Bart data regarding the control of the injection station 21.

This control includes, for example, the following:

1 When the molten metal is below the outlet, injection station 2l
The data for a problem in which the outlet of molten metal in the mold is moved to a position corresponding to the calculated position of the entrance (gate) of the mold is
If the required core is not set, the mold does not have the required rigidity, and/or the mold contains information that is not complete in any way, the molten metal outlet in the injection station 21 is It is closed and the mold in question is not poured.

If one or more molds exhibits a visible signal that they are unsuitable for injection, the operator may take appropriate manual intervention at the input data unit 54 to close the metal outlet at the injection station 21.

The individual data records generated during the production and preparation of each mold in the molding station 11, preferably by the core setting device 13, are recorded in an appropriate rFIFOJ buffer type register in which all columns are newly Each time a data record is entered, it advances one step, and at various positions along the column the data is read out and/or sent separately to various stations or different control units.

In this way, different stations and separate control units can receive different data when the mold or material in question is at their location or passes through them.

If data is read in the parameter recording unit, for example via the input data unit 54, with information about the group of metal alloys used, for example, in the injection station 21, each mold with a symbol corresponding to this information is A feeding means (not shown) may be included, and it can be confirmed from which group the casting in question has started further downstream in the apparatus. The symbol may be placed on the mold itself as a visible signal or machine-readable symbol (for example a bar code), but alternatively or additionally it may also be placed in the data record relating to the mold in question. The purpose is to reject certain molds of cast metal made from batches using the device further downstream, e.g. sorting station 47. One group is those that have been found by laboratory testing of extracted samples to be unsuitable for the purpose.

A certain amount of time is required to ensure that the molds filled with metal at the injection station 21 of the conveyor are sufficiently cooled before being moved to the removal station 41. However, the speed at which the molds are transported through and out of the injection station is so high that if these molds were to be transported in a straight path from the ejection station 41, a length of conveyor would be required.

However, finding that length with existing mold holes may be difficult or impossible.

In order to shorten the overall length of the device, the distance of the conveyor from the injection station 21 to the extraction station 41 is partially reduced by several, here two lateral switching conveyors 31.
The switching conveyors 31 and 32 are arranged so that when the conveyor lined up with the mold conveyor 22 becomes full, another conveyor stops at the same time, and another conveyor starts at the same time. . In this way, the molds on the "exchange" changeover conveyor find time to cool down. Meanwhile, new molds are sent to another conveyor placed in line with mold conveyor 22. When another conveyor is full (or about to become full), the conveyor is switched and the cold molds on the first conveyor are sent to the unloading station, and from the mold conveyor to new hot or cold molds. Then comes in.

Previously, this changeover between the various changeover conveyors was controlled manually or semi-automatically, and in practice many molds were in close proximity to the movement between the mold conveyor 22 and the associated changeover conveyor 31 or 32 at the time of changeover. The pouring had to be blocked and there was considerable wasted mold sand, especially production time. This problem is solved by the calculation unit 52, on the basis of data on the total empty dimensions in the direction of movement, to determine the time during which the changeover conveyors 31 and 32 move laterally without any molds in the movement position. It was resolved. The necessary controls for this are carried out via control unit 53 and control lines 533l and 5332 for switching conveyors 3l and 32.

For several reasons, it may be desirable to provide a certain spacing between the molds at the output end of mold conveyor 22 and the molds at the input end of switching conveyor 31 or 32, as the case may be, before moving the switching conveyor laterally. is preferable. Especially when the individual molds produced in mold station 11 are not freestanding molds, but the next mold block to form the mold cavity has half backward-facing molds and half forward-facing molds, the above-mentioned It becomes very necessary to provide an interval. In such a case, there is the ability to prevent the core setting device 13 from setting the core and the injection station from injecting into the mold cavity, rendering the injection nonconforming. This is, of course, possible by inputting data into the data record corresponding to the mold in question and outputting data therefrom, such that the mold in question is connected to the mold conveyor 22 in the column corresponding to the station in question. It is positioned in the transition zone between the switching conveyors 31 or 32.

As mentioned above, water addition unit 42 is installed (B Yu, :-
A suitable amount of water is added to the unloading station 41 at any given time, and the mold is sanded while the mold is being transferred to the sanding station 46 or returning from the sanding station 46 to the molding station 11. Allows sand to maintain accurate water volume. Further, as mentioned above, the addition unit 43
45 is controlled by a forming unit 53 to separately feed new mold sand, binder and additives to a sanding station 46 where the added components are transferred to the "old" mold sand. and finally returns to mold station l1 where it is reused to make new molds.

Therefore, each new mold made at mold station 11 contains, in addition to the original mold sand, a certain amount of water and a certain amount of new mold sand, binders and additives, all of which are removed from the lost mold sand. It is necessary to replace the mold, to provide sufficient solidity of the mold, and to enhance the action that occurs when the molten metal comes into contact with the cavity walls of the mold.

The purpose is to influence the surface of the casting, to improve its release, or to provide it with release characteristics.

Of course, the heat transferred to the mold by the injected metal causes a certain amount of water to evaporate, whereas this evaporation would not occur if for some reason - see above - the metal is not injected into the mold cavity in question. Will. In order that the amount of water optionally added to the removal unit 4l corresponds as far as possible to the actual needs, the injection station 21 transmits the following information through the parameter line 2l51:

Firstly, whether the mold in question is being poured; secondly, parameters such as mold weight, weight and temperature of the injected metal; then this information can be transferred to the mold in question in the same way as described above. is incorporated into the data record associated with the water-adding unit 42 which, when in position in the "column" corresponding to the removal station 41, successfully sends commands to the water addition unit 42. Furthermore, this control means can of course be influenced by suitable data inputs via the input data unit 54.

The control of the dosing units 43 to 45 is carried out in the same way and can sense the various dosing-important parameters. Insofar as such parameter sensing is not possible, this control
must be performed empirically. For example, at some point in the sand circuit, laboratory testing of mold sand samples forms the basis for bullet control data, which is then passed back to the input data unit 54. However, in particular the addition of binder (addition unit 44) and the addition of additives (addition unit 44)
It is clear that the dosing units 45) depend on the amount of mold sand used in each mold, so that the relevant data from the mold station 11 can be well utilized to control these dosing.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The accompanying drawing shows one embodiment of the device of the invention. Table of contents of the μSCAP procedure amendment 2 2. Tight+5 Old Itotake・ @t,! 7 Heirship 1 3. 4. Agent? Left 61 Chestnut 1n Feng ↑ Phantom [Existence] (Jyomu Shire/l) 1.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. a) Raw materials, molds, and cores used in the casting process, one or several conveyors (22, 31, 32) for conveying the castings produced in the process, and b1) the mold. b) a number of working stations, comprising at least a production and preparation station (11) and b2) an injection station (21) where molten metal is injected into the mold arriving from the mold production and preparation station; c) a minimum of , a mold making and preparation station (11);
attached to the injection station (21) as far as possible;
The mold shape and/or
or d) a parameter recording unit (51) adapted to record parameters regarding each mold generated by sensing physical size and/or other conditions; d) associated with the injection station (21); control means () mounted on the basis of the received parameters to control the functioning of the at least one injection station while the associated mold is at the injection station;
53) An automatic casting device characterized by: 2. Control means associated with the injection station (21),
Adapted to prevent injection into the mold if the relevant parameters contain information that the mold shape does not correspond to a predetermined shape or that the mold is unsuitable for injection. The casting apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that: 3. The control means associated with the injection station is adapted to control the position of the outlet of the molten metal of the injection station and the mold inlet position of the molten metal for the mold part based on the information in the parameters for each mold. Claim 1, characterized in that the position of the mold is separately controlled.
Or the casting device according to 2. 4. A control device connected to the injection station guides a symbol device connected to the station to provide information about the name of the group from which the injected metal has come out, or important distinctions regarding the continuous processing and handling of the mold. Casting device according to one or more of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that each mold is provided with a symbol comprising or relating to the information. 5. A sorting device located downstream from the injection station (3
5. Casting device according to claim 4, characterized in that 1', 47) is adapted to sort one or several marked molds from other molds. 6.a) A parameter recording unit (51) transforms the recorded parameters into information signal groups, for example in the form of data records, and by means of an internal communication device (52) is assigned to each mold to which the parameters in question belong. and b) a control device (53) attached to the work station.
6. Casting device according to one or more of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the casting apparatus (1) is adapted to use parameter signals included in the information signal group as control signals. 7. The parameter recording device (51) records as a partial signal within the information signal group associated with the mold in question:
7. Casting device according to one or more of claims 4 to 6, characterized in that it is adapted to affix a mark supplied to each mold.