Casting factory based on aluminum alloy castings

Abstract

A casting factory based on aluminum alloy castings belongs to the technical field of casting, is used for solving the problems of low automation degree and low production efficiency of post-treatment procedures of an aluminum alloy casting process, and comprises a core making procedure, a core assembly assembling procedure, a pouring procedure and a post-treatment procedure, the post-treatment process comprises a sand treatment unit, a polishing unit, a storage unit, a detection unit and a heat treatment unit, the sand treatment unit is used for cleaning molding sand of the cast after pouring, the polishing unit is used for polishing the surface of the cleaned cast, and the storage unit is used for storing the qualified polished cast; the detection unit is used for detecting surface defects, internal defects and sizes of castings, and the heat treatment unit is used for carrying out heat treatment on the castings which are detected to be qualified, so that comprehensive automation of aluminum alloy casting post-treatment procedures is realized, and the operation efficiency of the post-treatment procedures is improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of casting technology, and particularly to a casting factory. Background Art

[0002] Currently, in the field of sand casting, most traditional post-treatment processes still mainly rely on manual operations. Starting from core making, manual labor is required for sand filling, compaction, and then the cavity is constructed through mold closing. During the sand mold pouring and cooling processes, workers also need to continuously patrol to ensure that everything progresses according to the set procedures. After cooling, a series of operations such as demolding, cleaning, and grinding need to be carried out manually, and all these processes rely on manual operations without exception.

[0003] Among them, only a few processes have achieved single-point automated operations. For example, some grinding operations in sand mold cleaning may use some simple automated grinding equipment, but its functions are relatively single and often disconnected from other processes. Another example is in the pouring process, some advanced casting workshops use automatic pouring robots, but this only realizes automation in a local link.

[0004] Generally speaking, in the post-treatment operation mode of traditional sand casting, due to a large number of processes relying on manual labor, the overall automation level is relatively low. Human physical strength and energy limit the continuity and accuracy of operations, resulting in a slow production rhythm and naturally low efficiency. Moreover, because it is difficult to ensure standardization and consistency in manual operations, product quality may be affected, and problems such as dimensional deviation and uneven surface roughness are likely to occur in the produced products. This not only increases the subsequent quality control and rework costs but also poses huge production pressure and market risks for enterprises when facing large-scale orders and tight production cycles. Summary of the Invention

[0005] In view of the problems of low automation level and low production efficiency in the post-treatment process of the above sand casting process caused by manual operations, it is necessary to propose a casting factory based on aluminum alloy castings, which realizes the continuity of the casting post-treatment process flow and improves the operation efficiency and automation level of the post-treatment process.

[0006] A casting factory based on aluminum alloy castings includes a core making process, a core assembly process, a pouring process, and a post-treatment process. The post-treatment process includes a sand treatment unit, a grinding unit, a warehousing unit, a detection unit, and a heat treatment unit.

[0007] The sand treatment unit is used to clean the molding sand of the castings after pouring, and includes a shakeout machine for shaking off the molding sand of the sand mold after pouring, a first manipulator for taking out the castings, a core removing machine for cleaning the molding sand inside the castings, and a vibrating table for cleaning the adhering sand on the castings. The operation process of the sand treatment unit is as follows: transfer the sand box cooled to the box-opening temperature to the shakeout machine, remove the outer sand box, and then the shakeout machine cleans the molding sand wrapped around the castings. Then, the first manipulator grabs the exposed castings and transfers them to the vibrating table. On the vibrating table, the adhering sand on the surface of the castings is cleaned through high-frequency vibration. Then, the first manipulator grabs the castings and transfers them to the core removing machine. Through the rotation and vibration of the core removing machine, the loose sand remaining in the inner cavity of the castings is cleaned, so as to realize the taking out, surface and internal sand cleaning of the castings. The sand treatment unit realizes the full automation of the molding sand cleaning of the castings after pouring;

[0008] The grinding unit is used to grind the surface of the cleaned castings to make the surface roughness of the castings meet the set requirements, and includes a rough finishing process and a fine finishing process. The rough finishing process is used to cut off the risers, flash, etc. on the surface of the castings. The fine finishing process is used to grind the surface of the castings to make the surface of the castings reach the set roughness. In the rough finishing process, there are a first transfer table, rough finishing equipment and a second manipulator. The first manipulator transfers the cleaned castings to the first transfer table, and the rough finishing equipment cuts off the larger protruding parts such as risers and flash carried on the surface of the castings. In the fine finishing process, there are a second transfer table, a third manipulator and fine finishing equipment. The second manipulator transfers the rough-finished castings to the second transfer table, and the fine finishing equipment grinds the surface of the castings to make the surface roughness of the castings meet the set requirements. The third manipulator transfers the ground castings to the manual grinding workbench to check and supplement the manual grinding of the castings.

[0009] The warehousing unit is used to store the qualified ground castings, and includes a first stereoscopic warehouse and transfer equipment. The third manipulator transfers the qualified ground castings to the transfer equipment, and the transfer equipment transfers the qualified ground castings to the first stereoscopic warehouse to realize the storage of the castings.

[0010] The detection unit is used to detect the surface defects, internal defects, dimensions, etc. of the castings, and includes a dimension detection process, a surface defect detection process, and an internal defect detection process. In the dimension detection process, there is a full-size three-dimensional detector, which can conveniently detect various dimensions of the castings. In the surface defect detection process, there is surface defect detection equipment, which can conveniently detect defects such as pits and protrusions on the surface of the castings. In the internal defect detection process, there is ray detection equipment, which can conveniently detect the tightness of the internal structure of the castings. At the same time, there is also a fourth manipulator in the detection unit, which is used to transfer the castings between the dimension detection process, the surface defect detection process, and the internal defect detection process to realize the smooth transfer of the castings between processes.

[0011] The heat treatment unit is used to perform heat treatment on the castings that have passed the inspection, so as to make the performance of the castings meet the set technical requirements. It includes an aging process, a solution treatment process, and a heat treatment inspection process. The aging process is used to perform aging heat treatment on the castings. The solution treatment process is used to perform solution heat treatment on the castings. The heat treatment inspection process is used to detect the performance of the castings after heat treatment. The aging process is equipped with an aging furnace, and the solution treatment process is equipped with a solution furnace. The castings that have passed the inspection through the heat treatment inspection process are transported to the second three-dimensional warehouse. For the castings that fail the inspection through the heat treatment inspection process, aging heat treatment or solution heat treatment is performed again according to the inspection results. By performing cyclic aging and solution heat treatment on the castings in the heat treatment unit, the castings output to the second three-dimensional warehouse are all heat-treated qualified castings.

[0012] The beneficial effects of the technical solution of the present invention: By dividing the post-casting treatment process of aluminum alloy castings into a sand treatment unit, a grinding unit, a warehousing unit, an inspection unit, and a heat treatment unit, the automation of the post-casting treatment process of aluminum alloy castings is realized, and the logistics distance of the post-treatment process is the shortest, improving the operation efficiency of the post-treatment process, saving the operation space, greatly reducing the heavy physical labor volume of the post-treatment process, and reducing the number of operating personnel. Specific embodiments

[0014] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, the following descriptions are some typical embodiments of the present invention. For those of ordinary skill in the art, without creative efforts, other solutions can also be obtained based on these embodiments.

[0015] An implementation method, the casting factory based on aluminum alloy castings includes a core making process, a core assembly process, a pouring process, and a post-treatment process. The post-treatment process includes a sand treatment unit, a grinding unit, a warehousing unit, an inspection unit, and a heat treatment unit. This setting method realizes the full automation of the post-treatment process of aluminum alloy castings, improves the operation efficiency of the post-treatment process, and also saves the floor area of the post-treatment process.

[0016] As a supplement to this embodiment, the sand treatment unit is used to clean the molding sand of the casting after pouring, and includes a shakeout machine for shaking off the molding sand of the sand mold after pouring, a first manipulator for taking out the casting, a core removing machine for cleaning the molding sand inside the casting, and a vibrating table for cleaning the adhering sand on the casting. The operation process of the sand treatment unit is as follows: transfer the sand box cooled to the time of box opening to the shakeout machine, and the shakeout machine cleans the molding sand wrapping the casting in the sand box. Then, the first manipulator grabs the exposed casting to the vibrating table, and the adhering sand on the casting surface is cleaned through high-frequency vibration on the vibrating table. Then, the first manipulator grabs the casting to the core removing machine, and through the rotation and vibration of the core removing machine, the loose sand remaining in the casting cavity is cleaned, so as to realize the taking out of the casting, and the cleaning of the surface and internal sand of the casting. The sand treatment unit realizes the full automation of the cleaning of the molding sand of the casting after pouring. By disposing the first manipulator in the sand treatment unit, the automatic transfer of the casting in the sand treatment unit is realized. The shakeout machine is used to shake off the core package wrapped with the casting after pouring placed on the shakeout machine, that is, to shake off the mold surrounding the casting, so that the casting is exposed to the air. The vibrating table is used to shake off the molding sand adhering to the casting surface, so that the casting has as little molding sand as possible. The vibrating table shakes off or loosens the adhering sand on the casting surface placed thereon through high-frequency vibration. After passing through the shakeout machine and the vibrating table, the casting has the wrapped mold and the adhering molding sand on the casting surface cleaned, but the molding sand remaining in the casting cavity and voids has not been cleaned yet. The core removing machine is used to clean the molding sand remaining in the casting cavity and voids. The core removing machine shakes off the molding sand adhering to the casting voids and cavities through the interaction of rotation and vibration, and then discharges the shaken-off molding sand through centrifugal force, so as to realize the cleaning of the molding sand adhering inside the casting. Through the three processes of the shakeout machine, the vibrating table and the core removing machine, the comprehensive automatic sand cleaning of the outside and inside of the casting is realized.

[0017] As a supplement to this embodiment, the grinding unit is used to grind the surface of the castings after cleaning so that the surface roughness of the castings meets the set requirements. It includes a rough finishing process and a fine finishing process. The rough finishing process is used to cut off the risers, flash, etc. on the surface of the castings, and the fine finishing process is used to grind the surface of the castings so that the surface of the castings reaches the set roughness. In the rough finishing process, there is a first transfer table, rough finishing equipment and a second manipulator. The first manipulator transfers the cleaned castings to the first transfer table, and the rough finishing equipment cuts off the larger protruding parts such as risers and flash carried on the surface of the castings. In the fine finishing process, there is a second transfer table, a third manipulator and fine finishing equipment. The second manipulator transfers the rough-finished castings to the second transfer table, and the fine finishing equipment grinds the surface of the castings so that the surface roughness of the castings meets the set requirements. The third manipulator transfers the ground castings to the manual grinding workbench to check the grinding condition of the castings and supplement the manual grinding. Specifically, the rough finishing equipment includes a sawing machine, a trimming machine, etc. The sawing machine is used to cut off the remaining part of the riser on the surface of the castings, and the trimming machine is used to cut off the larger flash on the surface of the castings. The fine finishing equipment includes a grinding robot, and the grinding robot can automatically grind the castings placed in the fine finishing process area. In addition, there is a manual grinding workbench in the fine finishing process. The castings ground by the grinding robot are transferred to the manual grinding workbench by the third manipulator. The operators check the grinding condition of the castings, and the qualified castings are transferred to the storage unit. The unqualified castings are manually ground by the operators at the manual grinding workbench so that the surface quality of the castings meets the set requirements.

[0018] Preferably, the operation process of the grinding unit is as follows:

[0019] 1) The first manipulator transfers the cleaned castings to the first transfer table of the grinding unit, and the workpieces are clamped on the first transfer table.

[0020] 2) The second manipulator transfers the castings with clamped workpieces to the sawing machine, and the sawing machine cuts off the remaining part of the riser on the surface of the castings.

[0021] 3) Then the second manipulator transfers the castings to the trimming machine, and the trimming machine cuts off the flash on the surface of the castings.

[0022] 4) Then the second manipulator transfers the castings to the second transfer table, and the workpieces are clamped on the second transfer table.

[0023] 5) Then the third manipulator transfers the castings to the working area of the grinding robot, and the grinding robot grinds the surface of the castings.

[0024] 6) Then, the third manipulator transports the casting to the manual grinding workbench. At the manual grinding workbench, the operator checks the grinding condition of the casting. The qualified castings are transferred to the warehousing unit, otherwise, the operator performs supplementary grinding on the casting at the manual grinding workbench until the surface quality of the casting meets the requirements.

[0025] As a supplement to this embodiment, the warehousing unit is used to store the qualified castings after grinding, including a first stereoscopic warehouse and a transfer device. The third manipulator transfers the qualified castings after grinding to the transfer device, and the transfer device transfers the qualified castings after grinding to the first stereoscopic warehouse to realize the storage of the castings. Specifically, the transfer device can be an RGV transfer vehicle. The first stereoscopic warehouse is provided with a casting receiving roller table, and the receiving roller table is connected to the RGV transfer vehicle, which can smoothly transfer the castings from the third manipulator from the grinding unit to the first stereoscopic warehouse to realize the storage of the castings after grinding.

[0026] As a supplement to this embodiment, the detection unit is used to detect the surface defects, internal defects, dimensions, etc. of the casting, including a dimension detection process, a surface defect detection process, and an internal defect detection process; the dimension detection process is provided with a full-size three-dimensional detector, which can conveniently detect various dimensions of the casting; the surface defect detection process is provided with a surface defect detection device, which can conveniently detect defects such as pits and protrusions on the surface of the casting; the internal defect detection process is provided with a ray detection device, which can conveniently detect the tightness of the internal structure of the casting; at the same time, a fourth manipulator is also provided in the detection unit, and the fourth manipulator is used to transfer the casting between the dimension detection process, the surface defect detection process, and the internal defect detection process to realize the smooth transfer of the casting between processes. The detection unit realizes the automatic detection of the casting and the automatic process between processes, improving the operation efficiency.

[0027] Preferably, the detection unit further includes an automatic welding repair process, which is used to automatically repair the unqualified surface detected. The repaired casting is transferred to the dimension detection process, the surface defect detection process, and the internal defect detection process again for re-detection of the repaired casting, so as to realize the automatic detection and automatic repair of the casting in the detection unit, so that the castings flowing out of the detection unit are all qualified castings or scrapped castings that cannot be repaired.

[0028] Preferably, the detection unit further includes a shot blasting process, which is used to perform shot blasting on the qualified castings after detection to improve the surface roughness of the castings and make the surface quality of the castings meet the set requirements.

[0029] Preferably, the fourth manipulator is a movable manipulator, that is, the fourth manipulator can randomly move to any position to realize the transfer of the casting to any specified position. Specifically, the fourth manipulator can be a vehicle-type manipulator with a wheeled base, etc.

[0030] Preferably, the operation process of the detection unit is as follows:

[0031] 1) The casting automatically exits the warehouse through the receiving roller table, and the fourth manipulator transfers the casting that has exited the warehouse to the inspection station of the dimensional inspection process, and the full-dimensional three-dimensional detector inspects the dimensions of the casting;

[0032] 2) For the casting that has passed the internal defect detection, the fourth manipulator then transfers the casting to the inspection station of the surface defect detection process, and the surface defect detection equipment inspects the surface structure of the casting and marks the detected cracks, pits, protrusions, etc.;

[0033] 3) For the casting that has passed the dimensional inspection, the fourth manipulator then transfers the casting to the inspection station of the internal defect detection process, and the ray detection equipment inspects the internal structure of the casting;

[0034] 4) The casting that has passed the dimensional, surface, and internal inspections is transferred to the automatic welding repair process again by the fourth manipulator. For the positions that need to be welded and repaired detected, the welding repair robot automatically performs welding repair according to the received defect positions and defect categories;

[0035] 5) The castings that have been welded and repaired are transferred to the dimensional inspection process, the surface defect detection process, and the internal defect detection process again by the fourth manipulator, and dimensional inspection, surface defect detection, and internal defect detection are respectively carried out;

[0036] 6) The above steps are repeated until qualified castings are obtained, and the qualified castings are transferred to the shot blasting process by the fourth manipulator to perform shot blasting treatment on the surface of the castings.

[0037] As a supplement to this embodiment, the heat treatment unit is used to perform heat treatment on the castings that have passed the inspection, so that the performance of the castings meets the set technical requirements. It includes an aging process, a solution treatment process, and a heat treatment inspection process. The aging process is used to perform aging heat treatment on the castings, the solution treatment process is used to perform solution heat treatment on the castings, and the heat treatment inspection process is used to detect the performance of the castings after heat treatment. The aging process is equipped with an aging furnace, and the solution treatment process is equipped with a solution furnace. The castings that have passed the inspection through the heat treatment inspection process are transported to the second three-dimensional warehouse. For the castings that have failed the inspection through the heat treatment inspection process, aging heat treatment or solution heat treatment is performed again according to the inspection results. By performing cyclic aging and solution heat treatment on the castings in the heat treatment unit, the castings output to the second three-dimensional warehouse are all heat-treated qualified castings. The fully automated operation process of the heat treatment unit is realized.

[0038] Preferably, the operation process of the heat treatment unit is as follows:

[0039] 1) The fourth manipulator transports the qualified castings from the inspection unit to the aging furnace for aging treatment of the castings;

[0040] 2) The fourth manipulator transports the aged castings to the solution furnace for solution treatment of the castings;

[0041] 3) The fourth manipulator transports the heat-treated castings to the inspection station of the heat treatment inspection process. If the mechanical properties of the castings meet the requirements, the fourth manipulator transports the castings to the second three-dimensional warehouse; if not, aging treatment and / or solution treatment are performed on the castings again according to the inspection results.

[0042] Through the implementation of the technical solution of the present invention, the post-casting treatment process of aluminum alloy castings has achieved complete automation from sand treatment, grinding, repair welding, heat treatment, inspection, and warehousing, solving the problems of low production efficiency and high heavy physical labor intensity in the traditional casting mode.

[0043] The above embodiments are only descriptions of a typical application of the technical solution of the present invention. On the basis of being reasonable and not requiring creative labor, reasonable expansion can also be carried out.

Claims

1. A foundry based on aluminum alloy castings, comprising a core making process, a core assembly process, a pouring process and a post-processing process, characterized in that: The post-processing process includes a sand treatment unit, a grinding unit, a storage unit, a detection unit and a heat treatment unit; The sand processing unit is used to clean the molding sand of the casting after pouring, including a sand shakeout machine for shaking off the sand mold after pouring, a first manipulator for taking out the casting, a molding sand core remover for cleaning the inside of the casting, and a vibration table for cleaning the sand stuck on the casting; The grinding unit is used to grind the surface of the cleaned casting so that the roughness of the casting surface reaches the set requirements, including a roughing process and a finishing process. The roughing process is used to cut the riser and the batch seam on the surface of the casting, and the finishing process is used to grind the surface of the casting so that the surface of the casting reaches the set roughness; The storage unit is used to store the castings that have been polished to the standard, and includes a first stereoscopic warehouse and a transfer device. The third manipulator transfers the castings that have been polished to the transfer device, and the transfer device transfers the castings that have been polished to the first stereoscopic warehouse to store the castings. The detection unit is used to detect surface defects, internal defects and dimensions of castings, including dimension detection process, surface defect detection process and internal defect detection process; the dimension detection process is equipped with a full-size three-dimensional detector, which can conveniently detect various dimensions of castings; the surface defect detection process is equipped with a surface defect detection device, which can conveniently detect pits and protrusion defects on the surface of castings; the internal defect detection process is equipped with a radiographic detection device, which can conveniently detect the tightness of the internal structure of the casting; The heat treatment unit is used to perform heat treatment on the castings that have passed the inspection so that the performance of the castings can meet the set technical requirements, including an aging process, a solution heat treatment process and a heat treatment inspection process. The aging process is used to perform aging heat treatment on the castings, the solution heat treatment process is used to perform solution heat treatment on the castings, and the heat treatment inspection process is used to detect the performance of the castings after heat treatment.

2. A foundry based on aluminum alloy castings according to claim 1, characterized in that The operation process of the sand processing unit is as follows: The sand box cooled to be boxed is transferred to the sand-falling machine, and the sand-falling machine cleans the molding sand wrapped around the casting after the outer sand box is removed; The first manipulator then grabs the exposed casting and places it on a vibration table, where high-frequency vibration is used to clean the sand stuck on the surface of the casting. The first manipulator then grabs the casting and places it on the core remover, which rotates and vibrates to clean the loose sand left in the inner cavity of the casting.

3. The foundry based on aluminum alloy castings according to claim 1, characterized in that The rough finishing process is provided with a first transfer table, a rough finishing device and a second manipulator. The first manipulator transfers the cleaned casting to the first transfer table, and the rough finishing device cuts off the risers and the protruding parts with larger batch seams on the surface of the casting.

4. A foundry based on aluminum alloy castings according to claim 3, characterized in that The finishing process is provided with a second transfer table, a third manipulator, and a finishing device. The second manipulator transfers the roughly finished casting to the second transfer table, and the finishing device grinds the surface of the casting so that the roughness of the casting surface meets the set requirements.

5. A foundry based on aluminum alloy castings according to claim 4, characterized in that A manual polishing workbench is also provided in the finishing process. The casting polished by the polishing robot is transferred to the manual polishing workbench by the third manipulator, and the polishing condition of the casting is checked by the operator. The qualified castings are transferred to the storage unit, and the unqualified castings are manually polished by the operator on the manual polishing workbench so that the surface quality of the casting meets the set requirements.

6. A foundry based on aluminum alloy castings according to claim 5, characterized in that The operation process of the grinding unit is as follows: The first manipulator transfers the cleaned casting to the first transfer table of the grinding unit, and clamps the casting on the first transfer table; The second manipulator transfers the casting with the tooling to the sawing machine, and the sawing machine cuts off the remaining part of the riser on the surface of the casting; The second manipulator then transfers the casting to a trimming machine, and the trimming machine cuts off the seams on the surface of the casting; The second manipulator then transfers the casting to the second transfer table, and clamps the casting on the second transfer table; The third manipulator then transfers the casting to the working area of ​​the polishing robot, and the polishing robot polishes the surface of the casting; The third robot then transfers the casting to a manual polishing workbench, where an operator checks the polishing condition of the casting. Those that pass the inspection are transferred to the storage unit. Otherwise, the operator performs additional polishing on the casting at the manual polishing workbench until the surface quality of the casting meets the requirements.

7. The foundry based on aluminum alloy castings according to claim 1, characterized in that The transfer equipment is an RGV transfer vehicle, and the first stereoscopic warehouse is provided with a casting receiving roller, and the receiving roller is connected to the RGV transfer vehicle to achieve the purpose of transferring the castings from the grinding unit carried by the third robot to the first stereoscopic warehouse.

8. The foundry based on aluminum alloy castings according to claim 1, characterized in that The inspection unit also includes an automatic welding repair process, which is used to automatically repair the detected surface defects. The repaired casting is again transferred to the size inspection process, the surface defect inspection process and the internal defect inspection process for re-inspection of the repaired casting.

9. A foundry based on aluminum alloy castings according to claim 8, characterized in that The detection unit also includes a shot blasting process, which is used to shot blast the castings that have passed the detection to improve the roughness of the casting surface.

10. A foundry based on aluminum alloy castings according to claim 9, characterized in that The operation process of the detection unit includes: The casting is automatically shipped out of the warehouse through the transfer roller, and the fourth manipulator transfers the shipped casting to the inspection station of the size inspection process, and the size of the casting is inspected by the full-size three-dimensional detector; The castings that have been inspected for internal defects are then transferred by the fourth manipulator to the inspection station for the surface defect inspection process. The surface defect inspection equipment inspects the surface structure of the castings and marks the detected cracks, pits, protrusions, etc. After the size inspection, the casting is then transferred by the fourth manipulator to the inspection station of the internal defect inspection process, and the internal structure of the casting is inspected by the X-ray inspection equipment; The castings that have passed the size, surface and internal inspections are transferred to the automatic welding process again by the fourth manipulator, and the welding robot automatically welds the detected positions that need welding according to the received defect positions and defect types; The welded casting is again transferred by the fourth robot to the dimension inspection process, the surface defect inspection process, and the internal defect inspection process for dimension inspection, surface defect inspection, and internal defect inspection, respectively; The above steps are repeated until a qualified casting is obtained, and the qualified casting is transferred to the shot blasting process by the fourth robot to perform shot blasting on the surface of the casting.