DISAMATIC

DISAMATIC is an automatic production line used for fast manufacturing of sand molds for pouring molten metal, which after solidification, cooling and removal from the mold becomes a part called casting.

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The invention

In 1957 Vagn Aase Jeppesen - professor at the Danish Technical University claimed a patent for a device producing flaskless molds of sand mixtures with vertical parting lines for casting metal parts. In 1960 Danish company Dansk Industri Syndikat A/S (DISA) acquired the patent and started working on its implementation.

Prototype

In 1962 a half scale prototype of a sand molding machine with flaskless and vertically parted molds under the name of DISAMATIC was ready to be disclosed. During the GIFA foundry exhibition in 1962 in Düsseldorf, (today one of the largest foundry shows in the world), the scale model was demonstrated on DISA’s stand. This resulted in sales of two first DISAMATICS to European foundries.

Working principle

DISAMATIC consists of a molding machine and mold transporting conveyor. It applies clay bonded sand mixtures, also called green molding sands due to its moisture content. Such mixtures consist of silica sand, clay called bentonite and few other additives. Their main component is relatively cheap silica (SiO₂) sand , one the most common compounds on the Earth. The molding sand mixture is blown by means of compressed air into a rectangular steel chamber, squeezed to a mold by two patterns fasted to the two opposed side plates of the chamber. After squeezing one of the chamber plates retracts and swings upwards and the opposite plates pushes the ready mold out of the chamber on a mold transporting conveyor. Here cores can be set automatically into the mold cavity while the next mould is about to be prepared. The above cycle repeats until a string of such molds closed-up to each other has been established on the conveyor.

The molds can now be filled with molten metal and the poured molds will be moved forward on the cooling conveyor in the same pace as the fabrication of new moulds takes place. At the end of the conveyor the solidified castings are separated from the molds and processed further, while the sand is directed to the sand preparation plant for reconditioning and reuse in the next cycles of the DISAMATIC molding process.

Advantages

The DISAMATIC sand molding process has several advantages comparing to other molding processes. It does not use flasks, which avoids a need of their transporting, storing and maintaining. DISAMATIC is very productive and fully automatic (only one monitoring machine operator is needed). This reduces the labor consumption. Molding sand consumption can be minimized due to variable mold thicknes that can be adjusted to the necessary minimum. The castings produced on the DISAMATIC lines are very accurate dimensionally since once the molds have been cored and closed there are no perpendicular forces affecting the mould string. There are very few wear parts and movable parts in the molding machine. This decreases spare parts consumption and increases efficiency of the molding line. For the above reasons the DISAMATIC process is particularly suitable for mass manufacturing of metal castings that are crucial components in the car and machine industry, civil engineering and many other fields.

Further developments

The first automatic DISAMATIC molding lines could produce up to 240 complete sand molds per hour. Today a modern DISA molding line can mold at the rate of 550 sand molds per hour (one complete mold for each 6.5 seconds). Maximal mis-match of two half’s of the castings made on the DISA lines does not exceed 0,1 mm. The reliability (uptime) of the DISA lines exceeds 98%. The range of DISAMATIC moulding lines covers mold sizes from 400 x 500 to 850 x 1200 milimetrs. A modern DISA line can be completed with automatic casting and sand cooling drums, robotized devices for extracting castings from the molds and automatic casting cleaning and shot blasting machines placed inline with the DISA line. In such automatic production lines there is no need of any human manual labor until the castings are completely finished and ready for dispatch.

See also

• Green sand
• Molding sand
• Foundry
• Casting
• Sand casting
• Cope and drag
• Foundry sand testing
• Chill (foundry)
• Centrifugal casting
• Casting flask
• Hand mould
• Die casting
• Lost-foam casting
• Lost-wax casting
• Pattern (casting)
• Permanent mold casting
• Automobile