Improvements in or relating to pig-casting machines

摘要

1,008,046. Ingot casting - machines. WUPPERMETAL G.m.b.H. March 13, 1964 [March 14, 1963], No. 10787/64. Heading B3F. In a pig-casting machine one group of adjacent ingot moulds 101 at a time is moved in a recurrent sequence below an ingate 2 and supplied therefrom to an ejecting and raising device 4 which turns every other ingot around its longitudinal axis, the ingots being of trapezoidal cross-section and having gripping projections, the ingots being then conveyed to a stacking device 40. At the lifting and raising station 4 the ingots 18 are lifted by ejector pins 21, Fig. 3, and their ends engaged by shoes 23 on arms 24 pivotable by cylinders 29 and vertically movable by ram 27. Alternate shoes 23 are rotatable by rack and pinion mechanism 32, 33, so that alternate ingots may be rotated through 180 degrees. Thereafter a rake 35 descends and its tines 36 engage with gripping projections 1811 on the ingots to prevent longitudinal or transverse shifting. The arms 24 then move outwardly to leave the layer of ingots supported by the fork 41 of a truck 37 which removes it to the stacking device 40, the truck being driven by drag lines 44 running on windlasses 45 and connected to a piston-cylinder 47. Shortly before the truck 37 reaches the end of its travel a stop 48, Fig. 5, engages the ingots 18, pushing them together and then from off the fork 41 on to a pallet 14 previously cast in a mould 13, Fig. 2, and transferred in the same way as the ingots to the stacker. After the layer of ingots has been deposited the stacking table 49 is rotated through 90 degrees so that the next layer of ingots will lie transverse to the preceding layer and is depressed by a ram 51 sufficiently for the next forward movement of the fork 41. A rail-mounted truck 52 removes the finished stack. The moulds are air-cooled through tunnels beneath them connecting with a channel 59 through bends 57.