Coremaking equipment.

At GIFA 94 this past June, foundry industry suppliers from around the world displayed a vast array of products for every aspect of metal casting. This month we cover firms that featured innovative coremaking equipment.

Disa Technologies' Combicore machine was on display at the show. The unit allows foundries to run both horizontal and vertical coreboxes on the same machine. This core extruding system features a modular design that provides better control, convenient loading and unloading of tooling, and easy removal of cores in the manual or automatic modes.

Loramendi displayed its flexible, automatic core manufacturing cells, which feature assembly, the key-core core interlocking system, and dipping and spinning. Models SVA and SHAC offer better dimensional accuracy of cores with fewer rejects, reduced core handling and lower trimming cost.

Equipment Merchants International, Inc. (EMI) featured its line of Quikore machines for coldbox and hot-box coremaking. On these units, cores are blown, cured and stripped automatically in one rapid cycle, producing hard, smooth and accurate cores at high-volume rates. Programmable controls, rapid core removal facilities and durable construction are all built into these units.

Information was also available on the company's fast-cycling Core Setter for high-volume production lines. Handling up to 300 core assemblies per hour, the machine synchronizes with, and locates to, drag molds on a continually moving mold conveyor. The system's coresetting fixture, held by a set of clamp arms, permits quick and easy fixture changes.

Already in use at automotive foundries overseas, the American-made Eurocor automated coremachine from Redford Carver Foundry Products Co. enables plants to produce high-quality cores at high production rates. The advanced control system uses PLC to permit preset production cycles formany different cores. Practical design makes tooling changes last and easy, even with large, heavy tooling.

Controls on the unit also feature a video operator interface in which operation, cycle progress, diagnostics and maintenance are controlled from a conveniently located video screen. Production rates vary according to core configuration and required binder process, but 70 cycles or more per hour can typically be produced with any core.

Laempe (Laempe + Reich in the U.S.) displayed the LCM core-mold machine, which produces cores and molds on the same machine during one cycle with only one operator. Two patterns or coreboxes can be run simultaneously with a new feature that automatically discharges the cores onto belts for assembly or removal.

Also of interest from Laempe was a variety of core shooters, ranging from the high-production "automotive type" core machine to the small L5. This unit offers technology that incorporates machine, cabin, hydraulics and a generator in a compact design.

Peterle, Inc. featured a horizontal rotary core machine. With programmable logic sequence controls, a graphic monitor and self-cleaning of the shooting plate and shooting head, the machine offers fully automatic core production continuously from a single command.

The HCL-750 from Naniwa Products is an improved version of the firm's vertically actuating coldbox core machine. On this unit, the drag core box half can be rotated 90 degrees toward the front, allowing deep cavities of the drag corebox half to be completely cleaned.

The unit's design simplifies corebox construction, allowing for easy inspection and final core removal. A turntable mechanism provides quick changing of coreboxes after removal from the work zone.

Heinrich Wagner Sinto (Roberts Sinto in the U.S.) found GIFA a good venue to introduce a revolutionary new system for green sand coremaking. The process simplifies operations by eliminating the need for separate molding and core sands, while still producing high-quality cores.