Sand moulding machine and method of producing sand mould parts

A method of producing sand mould parts, whereby a moulding chamber during a filling operation is filled with sand, and whereby the sand is subsequently compacted, the moulding chamber being formed by a chamber top wall, a chamber bottom wall, two opposed chamber side walls and two opposed chamber end walls, whereby the moulding chamber is filled with sand through at least one sand filling opening provided in a chamber wall, whereby a mould or mould part is provided with a pattern by means of at least one of the chamber end walls being provided with a pattern plate having a pattern, and whereby sand is compacted inside the moulding chamber by displacing at least one of the chamber end walls in a longitudinal direction of the moulding chamber, whereby a reference pattern is formed in an external face of a sand mould part by means of at least one reference pattern block associated with and positioned in fixed relationship to at least one of the pattern plates, and whereby a position of a pattern face of the reference patterns of the sand mould parts is detected by means of a detection system arranged adjacent a path of travel of the compacted 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 adjusted by actuation 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 adjusted by actuation 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 by controlling said actuator or actuators 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, thereby adaptively controlling 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.