Flask unit and cope-and-drag molding machine and line

A molding machine for molding a flaskless cope and a flaskless drag that are stacked, comprising:

• a flask unit for producing a cope and a drag that are stacked, said unit having at least two uprightly disposed connecting rods, a cope flask slidably fitted on the connecting rods and formed with a molding sand blowing-in port in one of the sides thereof, and a drag flask slidably fitted on the connecting rods for being located under the cope to mate it, the drag flask being formed with a molding sand blowing-in port in one of the sides thereof;
• a machine body, the flask unit being detachably attached to the machine body;
• a match plate to be placed in and out of a position between the cope flask and the drag flask of the flask unit attached to the molding machine;
• a molding sand squeeze mechanism for allowing the match plate to be sandwiched between the cope flask and the drag flask and allowing an upper squeeze means and a lower squeeze means to advance in those respective openings of the cope flask and the drag flask that are not closed by the match plate and to retract therefrom, the molding sand squeeze mechanism being rotatable clockwise and counterclockwise between a position where the cope flask and the drag flask sandwiching the match plate are horizontal and a position where the cope flask and the drag flask sandwiching the match plate are vertical;
• a rotating mechanism for rotating the molding sand squeeze mechanism clockwise and counterclockwise;
• a sand blowing mechanism for blowing molding sand into cope and drag flasks located in the vertical position through the sand blowing-in ports thereof;
• a mold withdrawing mechanism for withdrawing the cope and the drag from a pair of the cope flask and the drag flask holding the cope and the drag that are stacked and that are in the horizontal position;
• and
• a flask rotating mechanism for intermittently rotating more than two horizontally distributed pairs of its copes and the drags stacked in each pair, between the molding sand squeeze mechanism and the mold withdrawing mechanism, the flask rotating mechanism being able to elevate the cope flask.