"Win a universe where law reigns.

E ARE a race of beings created

That will forever need all the

repetition and emphasis which can be put on it. Law reigns. It can neither be cheated, evaded, nor turned aside. We can discover it, live in accordance with it, observe it, and develop and succeed; or, we can disregard it, violate it, defy it, and fail. Law reigns. It is the source of order, of freedom, of righteous authority, or organized society, and also of industrial success and prosperity. To disregard it is to perish, to observe it is to live, physically, mentally, morally, spiritually. It is the principle that requires respect and reverence for authority. is not sought for the benefit of those who may temporarily represent government or any other example of authority, but for the benefit of the individual himself."

It

-Vice-President, Calvin Coolidge

CHICAGO

APRIL, 1923

Improved Foundry Practice*

Quantity Production of Automobile Castings

(By D. R. Wilson, Vice-President, Wilson Foundry & Machine Company)

HE plant of the Wilson Foundry & Machine Company,

THE

at Pontiac, Mich., is unique in many respects. It has been developed by the Wilson Brothers primarily for the production of castings for the Overland and the Willys-Knight cars, though the foundry produces jobbing castings for many other industries, and during the war made a very enviable record on many lines of war castings, and particularly on airplane engine cylinders and gas shells. Eight years ago the foundry was started by the purchase of the old Flanders foundry and machine shop, and these two roof areas today form a part of the regular plant, the expansion having been carried on from the original units until today it ranks among the largest producers of motor car castings in the world.

As all castings have to start with the consideration of the raw material we will start with the sand end of this plant, and will consider the metal end later. Fig. 1 shows a general view of the outside of the sand storage building. This building is 80 feet wide and 390 feet long, and has a sand storage capacity of 700 cars of molding and core sand. The cars come in on the track adjacent to the end of the building, and the sand is unloaded by the grab bucket shown on the crane and is carried in and distributed into the various bins. The ground floor doors shown in the rear end of the plant and the glass windows on the lower level represent the end of the mixing room, which occupies a space 40 feet wide by 80 feet long, extending across the sand storage building.

The crane which serves the sand storage also crosses the tracks and serves to supply fuel to the heating plant. This crane and grab bucket unloads all of the coal, piles it in stock *Address to Convention, National Founders Association, November, 1922.

piles, and handles it from the stock piles to the heating plant. It also not only puts all sand into storage, but takes all sand out of storage and supplies it to the mixing machines, or loads it into the dump carts to be hauled to the facing department, or to the foundry for distribution on the sand heaps.

FIG. 1.

Exterior View of Sand Storage Building with a Capacity of 700 Cars

A general view of the interior looking over the sand heaps and showing the crane in position over one of the hoppers is shown in Fig. 2.

The two grades of core sand used are stored on opposite sides of the core sand mixing unit, and the molding sand is stored at the further end of the building as shown in Fig. 2.

Originally the sand mixing machinery and equipment consisted of two units, each essentially like that shown in Fig. 3. This consists of a Standard Sand & Machine Co's. batch mixer, elevated, and arranged with a floor feed hopper. In the old arrangement the sand was taken from the bins through doors in the retaining walls at the sides of the mixing room, and loaded into carts, and dumped into the hopper. A batch was made up in the hopper and then delivered to the mixing machine by the bucket elevator shown. Oil was then added from a little tank at the end of the mixer beyond the conveyor, the

measured amount being forced in by compressed air. Where water is necessary in the mix a measured amount of this is also forced in, being distributed through a spray pipe along the top of the mixer. Careful experiments have been made to determine the proper mixing time for each batch and the

machine operator has a clock which enables him to determine the time before the discharge gate is opened.

The material is then drawn out into delivery carts as shown under the machine in Fig. 3. The mixed sand is delivered to the core makers benches, as will be shown in later pictures.

The more recent installation of equipment is shown in Fig. 4. In this case the mixer formerly used in connection with a unit like that shown in Fig. 3 was surmounted by a double hopper bin. One end of this bin contains one grade of sand and the other, another, and under each bin there is a measuring

gate that contains a certain cubic content of sand. An air cylinder serves to operate this gate and deliver into the mixer a measured amount of sand. The batches are made up with the content of this gate as a unit, and for certain mixes it may be necessary to move each gate five times, which would give ten times the amount delivered at one stroke as the total mix, or any other ratio between the two ingredients may be worked out.