Turntable Mold Handling Systems
Hunter Plays Key Role In Watts Water's New Lead-Free Foundry
Efficient. Hunter Turntable Systems are designed for the efficient handling of flaskless green sand molds.
HOW IT WORKS
The molds are pushed out of the molding machine on an aluminum bottom board. A self-storing automatic mold conveyor provides unpoured mold storage and quickly transports molds on demand to the turntable.
At the end of the storage conveyor the molds make a 90 degree lateral transfer onto a section of powered roller conveyor. This conveyor feeds molds as required into the transfer station, where the mold is pushed off the bottom board onto a graphite lined pouring plate on the first level of the turntable. The bottom board is then automatically returned to a storage magazine in the molding machine.
The pouring plates rest on forks which are mounted on the turntable indexing ring. The weights and jackets are automatically set. the weight is set first and then the jacket, insuring that setting the jacket does not cause mold shift. The molds are then indexed, one position at a time, to the pouring zone.
Molds can be automatically indexed to the pourer for single station pouring, or the pourer can move up the line to pour at multiple positions. After pouring, the molds cool under weights and jackets until they have completed one full revolution on the first level of the table. Before returning to the transfer station, the cooling mold comes to the elevator position. At this point the weight and jacket are stripped as the pouring plate and mold are elevated to one of the upper cooling levels.
The mold is then pushed off the pouring plate into one of the cooling chambers. The weight and jacket are set on the empty pouring plate as it is returned to the first level, and comes to rest in its original position on the forks.
By simply setting a selector switch on a multi-level system, the pourer can choose 2, 3 or 4 levels of cooling. Using this feature controls the amount of in-mold cooling provided, based on a specific jobs requirements. The operating sequence for a dual-level system is similar, but limited to a total of 2 levels.
The table continues to index as unpoured molds are loaded and cooled molds are discharged. In so doing, the mold pouring plate with weight and jacket make a complete circle and return to the transfer station. The weight and jacket are then lifted off the empty mold pouring plate. An incoming mold is pushed off the bottom board and onto the plate. The weight and jacket are then set and the table indexes, moving the mold on its way to the pouring zone.
Molds previously pushed to the upper cooling levels continue to cool undisturbed until they are discharged from the table. Each of the upper cooling levels has a pusher to discharge molds on command into the mold dump chute. This channels molds from the various cooling levels to a single discharge point outside the table. The chute will normally discharge directly onto a vibrating pan or shake-out conveyor, at an elevation well above floor level.