Many factors contribute to securing the best results The old foundry with its low roof and dark interior, where it is necessary to use the tallow candle to see to finish the mold and set the cores, is fast disappearing because it cannot be operated in competition with modern properly lighted foundries equipped with good handling facilities.

As many modern foundries are designed light is the main consideration. Those that make a large variety of work from castings weighing a few pounds to those weighing several tons frequently do not have facilities for handling the kind of work they are to make. Often no attempt has been made to establish even approximately the floor area required or handling facilities best adapted for the particular kind of work to be made because the designer did not have a clear conception of the size and weight and volume of each kind of casting to be made. If, however, the pattern is classified when received or made, into the size of flask which automatically establishes the approximate volume of sand and weights to be handled, the problem of designing the building, distributing the work, providing molding machine and crane equipment can readily be solved.

In the past the handling apparatus, whether overhead traveler, jib crane or monorail hoist has been considered as a necessary evil or an auxiliary equipment instead of being considered as a great aid in producing maximum results providing the handling equipment is selected to serve the particular operations required.

The work shown in the foundry, Fig. 1, was formerly made under a jib crane. Three men had to put in a long hard day to produce nine or ten molds. This job was fitted up to be made on a molding machine and an electric traveler arranged with controllers operated by pendant cords designed so that any one of the men in the gang could handle the flask to the molding machine and mold to the floor was provided. After man had placed the cores, another could operate the traveler and close the mold, two additional men were added to the gang making five men to serve the molding machine, set the cores and close the mold. The men produced 44 molds for a day's work, and did not work as hard as with the old

one

FIG. 3

MONORAIL HOIST SHOWN

combination, producing less than one quarter of the number of castings.

Fig. 2 shows a foundry with a central bay served by travelers placed on two levels. On the lower level are three 3-motor electric cranes, arranged for control by pendant cords from the floor, each crane having a capacity suitable for handling the largest mold to be made, but not largely in excess of the capacity required. On the higher level the cage-operated machine is of higher speed and is used largely for distributing flasks, taking out castings, and when necessary, carrying large ladles of iron over the top of the lower cranes without interfering with the molding operations. The side floor of this foundry is equipped with two 2-motor electric travelers, arranged for control by pendant cords. These machines are of light capacity, designed to perform the particular operations required of them. The core room, extending the whole length of one side of the foundry is served by a light capacity quick-acting overhead traveler.

System is Factor in Production

The crane equipment in this foundry is nearly ideal, but by applying the system of classification of pattern and by making a study of the average number of castings made. in definitely established flasks and by selecting the best molding machines for the work, a much larger tonnage could be produced with the same number of men. While the item of handling materials is low per ton of castings produced, many foundries are operating with high costs that can be lowered economically by the application of properly selected handling equipment.

Fig. 3 shows the material storage yard of the foundry shown in Fig. 2. Pig iron, coke, sand, etc., are moved mechanically throughout. Pig iron is unloaded from the cars by magnet to the yard and as required delivered to the charging platform by the crane and monorail hoist, clearly shown in the illustration. The only man labor is used in charging the cupola from the scales located on the platform. The sand and coke is unloaded by gravity to bins beneath the trestle.

Efficiency engineers have done much to lighten the burden of the manufacturer and the man who does the work but it is no easy task to get these parties thinking along the same lines. The writer had this thought in mind many times as he observed the operating conditions of foundries visited during his 12 years' experience calling on them in connection with applying electric cranes and hoists.

Very many foundries, especially the jobbing foundries, can greatly increase their production and make the job easier for both owner and workmen by giving more careful study to the pattern before it goes to the foundry and by standardizing flasks and then alloting as far as possible, definite floor space, suitable handling facilities and molding machines for the work.

Foundry Sand Handling Equipment

By H. L. MCKINNON, Cleveland.

The present tendency toward quantity production in the foundry has opened the way for more economical methods of handling the sand, and it is of these more economical methods. that this paper will treat.

The problem of sand handling in a foundry is one which rapidly increases in importance as the quantity of sand to be handled increases. This can be well illustrated by considering a foundry with a few men, making castings in a limited quantity, almost wholly by hand. In such a foundry the problem of handling the sand is simple. Enough sand may be placed on the floor in front of each molder so that he can do his full day's work and pour off his castings, and the sand may be returned to him after the day's work is done.

Why Mechanical Handling is Necessary

When large production is in process, and many tons of sand are to be turned over daily, the cost of physical labor alone runs up into such large figures that it is essential that mechanical means be found to reduce the expense. The advent of the molding machine into the foundry, and the consequent increase in the productive capacity of the molder has still further added to the burden of handling sand by manual labor and has made it necessary, from an economical standpoint, to provide for mechanical sand handling. Foundries of a continuous character present additional problems which add still further to the difficulties of handling the sand manually.

The use of sand in the foundry divides itself into two main elements; that of making molds and cores. It is further subdivided in accordance with the class of material to be poured in the molds, such as gray iron, brass, aluminum, malleable iron and steel. Each of these divisions is still further