Machine for continuously casting battery grids

In a machine for continuously casting battery grids, the machine including a drum adapted to be rotated in one direction and having on its outer peripheral surface a cavity which defines the pattern of the battery grid, said grid pattern comprising two sets of intersecting grooves, said grooves defining pads therebetween which form the outer peripheral surface of the drum and which define the open spaces between the wires of the cast battery grid, said machine including a shoe having an arcuate surface in mating engagement with said pads around an arcuate segment of the drum, said shoe having an orifice slot therein which is axially co-extensive with said cavity and which is open at a portion of said arcuate surface that is intermediate the circumferentially opposite ends of the shoe, said shoe having an inlet and an outlet communicating with axially spaced portions of the orifice slot, said machine also including means for directing molten lead at superatmospheric pressure to said inlet in an amount in excess of that required to progressively fill the grid cavity as it rotates past the opening in the orifice slot so that the excess is discharged through said outlet, that improvement which comprises the shoe being formed of a relatively high heat conducting metal and an insert is embedded in said arcuate surface of the shoe, said insert being formed of a metal having low heat conductivity relative to the shoe and forming at least the downstream side of the orifice slot relative to the direction of rotation of the drum.