Method for making flaskless upper and lower molds, an apparatus therefor, and a method for placing a core

An apparatus for making flaskless upper and lower molds that are stacked, comprising

• two pairs of cope and drag molding flasks each of which has a sand-filling port for supplying molding sand at a side wall of the flask,
• a conveying mechanism for inserting and withdrawing a match-plate in and from a gap between one of the two pairs of cope and drag flasks,
• a squeezing mechanism for squeezing molding sand in the one pair of flasks when the match-plate is held between the one pair of cope and drag flasks, the squeezing mechanism including upper and lower squeeze-plates that are inserted in and pulled out of respective openings of the one pair of cope and drag flasks, which openings are opposed to the match-plate, the squeeze plates forming upper and lower molding spaces in the cope and drag flasks, respectively, when the squeeze-plates are inserted into the flasks a predetermined distance and the match-plate is held between the one pair of flasks,
• a rotating mechanism for rotating the squeezing mechanism and the one pair of cope and drag flasks, between which the match-plate is held, around a supporting shaft so as to be rotatable in forward and backward directions in a vertical plane between positions in which the one pair of flasks is in a vertical position and in a horizontal position,
• release agent spraying mechanisms provided at each of the cope and drag flasks of the one pair of flasks for spraying a release agent into the upper and lower molding spaces at the time, or after, the molding spaces are formed and before the one pair of the cope and drag flasks with the match-plate held therebetween is in the vertical position,
• a sand-supplying mechanism that supplies molding sand through the sand-filling port to the upper and lower molding spaces of the one pair of cope and drag flasks after the one pair is moved to and is in the vertical position by the rotating mechanism, the squeezing mechanism thereafter squeezing the molding sand in the upper and lower molding spaces of the one pair of flasks to form upper and lower molds therein,
• a stripping mechanism for stripping the upper and lower molds from the one pair of cope and drag flasks containing the molds that are vertically stacked, and
• a swiveling mechanism for swiveling the two pairs of molding flasks intermittently and alternately when horizontally positioned and stacked one above the other between the squeezing mechanism and the stripping mechanism.