Development and Application of Low Temperature Six-station Automatic Wax Shooter

For a long time, investment casting low-temperature wax mold has three bottlenecks. First, the production efficiency is low. Second, the working environment is poor and the labor intensity is high. Operators wear long rain shoes every day, and their hands will rot because they are immersed in water all day long. Third, the parting line on the wax mold should be removed manually, which is time-consuming and laborious. Improving working conditions, increasing labor productivity and avoiding the repair of wax mold parting line has become a top priority. The low-temperature wax six station automatic shooter came into being.

1 Design layout

1.1 Station setting

The overall design of the waxing machine is round, which is divided into six stations. Six molds are installed on the rotary disk workbench at the same time, six independent upper guide pillars are set, and six waxing ports are arranged to realize the waxing of six molds in turn. The six molds are pressed in turn, core pulling and demoulding one by one, automatic operation, and continuous production, so that the waxing machine can play the role of the six waxing machines, reduce equipment investment, and save the workplace. See Figure 1.

1.2 Automatic device

The lower die is fixed on the workbench of the waxing machine, and the upper die is connected with the guide pillar to realize automatic upper die, lower die closing and opening. According to the different wax mold shape, structure, size and core pulling quantity of each mold, they are respectively set on the control cabinet. The wax temperature, wax injection speed, pressure holding time, core pulling sequence, mold opening time, and the parameters and instructions of wax mold ejection time of each mold are used to ensure the quality of each wax mold and effectively realize automatic wax mold. The whole mold automation, especially the automatic control and setting of core pulling on the mold, adopts reliable, simple and stable pneumatic principle structure, and the core pulling is automatically installed. See Figure 2 for the removal control mechanism.

1.3 Wax supply

The original wax planer, wax melting machine and wax regulator of the precision casting factory can continue to be used together. The prepared wax can be automatically fed into the wax storage bucket. The wax storage bucket is equipped with an insulation device. The wax output pipe and wax nozzle are also equipped with an insulation device. According to the preset working parameters, there are six wax nozzles. Compressed air is used as the power source of the entire equipment.

1.4 Mold cooling

In order to prevent the mold from overheating, avoid wax mold defects and ensure the quality of wax mold, the upper and lower templates of each mold are cooled by circulating water, and the water source returns to the cooling pool from the cooling pool of the intermediate frequency induction furnace. This is similar to the cooling method of the medium temperature wax injector, which is simple and practical. See the red cooling water pipe in Figure 3.

1.5 Automatic mould

The automatic die is equipped on the six station low-temperature wax automatic wax injection machine After the pressure is maintained, the core pulling is automatically pulled out. After the upper mold rises, the ejection mechanism acts, the wax mold is intact, and the tooth shape is not damaged. The demoulding is very smooth and fast, and the demoulding effect is the same as that of the medium temperature wax automatic waxing machine. As shown in Figure 4, the wax mold leaves the lower mold cavity.

At present, automatic die is the mainstream mode of pressure type. There are quite a few products used in the six station low-temperature wax automatic waxing machine. Several typical difficult products automatic die are selectively introduced. See Figure 5. Figures 6 and 7

1.6 Opening of inner gate

In production, it is necessary to make an internal gate on the wax mold, especially a special-shaped internal gate. The six station low-temperature wax automatic waxing machine can be equipped with an automatic core pulling mechanism, which has the advantage that pellets can be extracted from all directions, and is more popular with users. The special-shaped inner gate in Figure 8 is combined with the wax mold, saving the trouble of welding the inner gate.

2 Application effect

2.1 Capacity calculation

The six station low temperature wax full-automatic waxing machine runs for two cycles per minute, with a beat of 20s. If six different molds are installed, each mold is calculated as 4 per mold on average, and the capacity of a working shift is 5760 wax molds.

2.2 Reduction of employment

Six pairs of molds were installed on the six station low-temperature wax automatic waxing machine. As long as one person sits and watches, workers will turn operation into management, greatly reducing the cost of mold manufacturing. Due to the low skill requirements for operators, the selectivity of operators is expanded.

2.3 Environmental improvement

The operators not only reduced the labor intensity, but also improved the working environment. They no longer need to wear long rain shoes to work, so as to avoid allergic reactions caused by hands soaking in water all day long.

2.4 No mold repair

After using the low-temperature wax six station automatic waxing machine, the wax mold size is accurate and the surface is smooth. Not only is there no parting line on the wax mold, but also there is no crack, bulge, depression and insufficient pressure. Therefore, the wax mold cannot be repaired to avoid the mold repair process and shorten the considerable production time.

2.5 Reuse of old mold

After the low-temperature wax six station automatic waxing machine is put into production, the old mold that was originally fastened with butterfly nuts can be slightly rectified without having to reopen the new mold.

2.6 Price advantage

The investment cost of new product mould is low, and it is not limited by the number of products. The original wax adjusting equipment and compressor can still be used together, especially the low-temperature wax six station automatic waxing machine, which has stable performance, high degree of automation and high cost performance ratio, has obviously become a highlight.

3 Conclusion

The birth of low-temperature wax automatic waxing machine has changed the traditional manual wax gun mold making method for decades, and has completely changed the production conditions and working environment of operators.

The six station low temperature wax automatic waxing machine has proved the technical progress of investment casting production and the improvement of production efficiency.