Sand moulding machine and method of producing sand mould parts

A sand moulding machine for the production of sand mould parts including a moulding chamber formed by a chamber top wall, a chamber bottom wall, two opposed chamber side walls and two opposed chamber end walls, wherein a chamber wall is provided with at least one sand filling opening, wherein at least one of the chamber end walls is provided with a pattern plate having a pattern adapted to form a pattern in a sand mould part, wherein at least one of the chamber end walls is displaceable in a longitudinal direction of the moulding chamber in order to compact sand fed into the moulding chamber, wherein at least one of the pattern plates is associated with at least one reference pattern block positioned in fixed relationship to the pattern of said pattern plate and adapted to form a reference pattern in an external face of a sand mould part, and wherein a detection system is arranged adjacent a path of travel of the compacted sand mould parts and is adapted to detect a position of a pattern face of the reference patterns of the sand mould parts, wherein a transverse compaction position in which said at least one pattern plate is positioned during compaction of sand fed into the moulding chamber is adjustable by means of at least one actuator by means of which said at least one pattern plate is adjustable by displacement relative to a nominal position in at least one transverse direction of the longitudinal direction of the moulding chamber and/or in that a rotational compaction position in which said at least one pattern plate is positioned during compaction of sand fed into the moulding chamber is adjustable by means of at least one actuator by means of which said at least one pattern plate is adjustable by rotation relative to a nominal rotational position about at least one axis of rotation, and in that said actuator or actuators is/are controlled by means of a control system on the basis of successive position detections performed by the detection system of pattern faces of reference patterns of compacted sand mould parts traveling along said path of travel in order to adaptively control the alignment of patterns formed in produced sand mould parts along the longitudinal direction of the moulding chamber and/or the rotational position of patterns formed in produced sand mould parts about corresponding axes of rotation.