Freight car yoke molding apparatus and method

Abstract

An apparatus and method for molding a freight car yoke with a one piece core is disclosed herein. An exemplary one piece core may be used with a core mold upper half and a core mold lower half mated at a common split line to define a mold cavity which replicates the molded exterior features of a freight car yoke. The one piece core may replicate all of the molded internal features of a freight car yoke. An apparatus may use a pair of one piece cores to produce a pair of freight car yokes. An exemplary method can utilize the apparatus to produce a pair of freight car yokes through a single pour, using a pair of one piece cores. In an exemplary embodiment the one piece cores are constructed from a cold box with phenolic urethane treated molding sand.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. application No. 12 / 504,631 filed on Jul. 16, 2009 which is now Issued U.S. Pat. No. ______, and is incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully recited herein. U.S. application No. 12 / 504,631 is a non-provisional of, and makes claim of the benefit of priority to, U.S. provisional patent application No. 61 / 081,378, filed 16 Jul. 2008, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully recited herein.INVENTIVE FIELD[0002]The exemplary embodiments are directed to a method and apparatus for use in casting, particularly a method and apparatus for more efficiently producing castings of items such as freight car yokes.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIVE FIELD[0003]Casting methods currently used to produce items of metal alloys employ molding techniques that replicate the interior and exterior features of a desired part. Such methods comprise an exterior mold that replicates the external sur...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This approach results in higher accuracy, reduced scrap rates, and potentially eliminates the need for additional finishing steps, while enabling the production of individual or modular core mold assembly units, enhancing the efficiency and quality of cast parts.

Problems solved by technology

However, significant disadvantages are associated with the green sand method, some of which are the need for careful handling of the mold assembly due to the relative fragility of the green sand, as well as undesirable dimensional variations between castings associated with mold cavity, core misalignment and pattern wear.

Additionally, green sand molding techniques typically employ core sand compositions that differ from molding sand making reclamation of these components difficult in that they are mixed during the part removal process and thus can cross-contaminate each other.

Such an arrangement increases the number of parts that may need to be scrapped due to core mold assembly misalignments and cold-shunting.

Images