Piston Mold Assembly and Method of Constructing a Piston Therewith

A method of forming a piston comprising:

• moving a pair of first mandrels along a converging linear path oblique to a central axis of the piston into an engaged position;
• moving a pair of mold halves toward one another to an engaged position to provide at least a portion of a mold cavity with said first mandrels being received in said mold cavity;
• introducing a quantity of fluid piston material into the mold cavity;
• curing the fluid piston material to form a solid piston having an upper crown formed by said mold halves and a cooling gallery formed by said first mandrels, said cooling gallery being undercut in said upper crown;
• moving said first mandrels away from one another along a diverging linear path oblique to said central axis to a disengaged position substantially removed from the mold cavity;
• moving said mold halves to a disengaged position;
• and
• removing the cured piston from the mold cavity.

A method of casting a piston comprising:

• moving a pair of first mandrels along a linear path into an engaged position;
• moving a pair of mold halves into an engaged position to provide at least a portion of a mold cavity with said first mandrels being received in said mold cavity while in their engaged position;
• introducing a quantity of fluid piston material into the mold cavity;
• curing the fluid piston material to form a solid piston having an upper crown formed by said mold halves and a cooling gallery formed by said first mandrels, said cooling gallery being undercut radially inwardly from a ring belt of said upper crown;
• moving said first mandrels linearly to a disengaged position substantially removed from the mold cavity;
• moving said mold halves to a disengaged position;
• and
• removing the cured piston from the mold cavity.