Claims
- 1. A biaxial casting method for making a concrete masonry or CM block including a pair of opposing spaced face shells with at least three spaced webs extending transversely to and interconnecting said face shells and forming at least two cavities which are boundaried by said webs and portions of said face shells and extend through said CM block in the direction of an axis of casting of such block, said method using an apparatus adapted to be disposed in the mold of a CM casting machine with said mold including a mold box comprising four substantially vertically disposed side walls disposed in substantially rectangular plan configuration with a first pair of said side walls being longer than the second pair of said side walls, and said apparatus comprising: at least two mold cores substantially vertically disposed in said mold, said mold cores having substantially vertically disposed side walls arranged in substantially rectangular plan configuration, with a wall of each of said mold cores spaced from a wall of an adjacent mold core and other walls of said mold cores being spaced from side walls of said mold box so as to form a mold cavity which has a plan configuration like the plan of said CM block to be made, with the vertical axis of said mold cores extending in the direction of said axis of casting of said CM block to be made; at least one of said mold cores containing means for laterally projecting from within the periphery of said mold core to outwardly of at least one side of said mold core in like longitudinal direction as said first longer mold side walls to provide a temporary mold core laterally extending into said mold cavity in a direction transverse to said axis of casting; compressor/stripper means vertically movable with respect to said mold box and mold cores, pallet means vertically and laterally movable with respect to the bottom of said mold box, and CM material feed means laterally movable to above said mold box and away therefrom; said biaxial casting method for making said CM block comprising:
- (a) disposing a pallet with respect to said mold box to provide a mold bottom; extending said laterally projecting means from at least one of said mold cores into said mold cavity to provide said temporary mold core laterally extending into said mold cavity along an axis transverse to said axis of casting; feeding CM mix into said mold cavity from said feeder means; and vertically lowering said compressor/stripper means and compressing said CM mix in said mold cavity to form a CM block having an opening extending through at least one of said webs of said CM block; and
- (b) retracting said laterally projecting means to within said periphery of said mold core containing same to remove said temporary mold core from said mold cavity; sensing with a sensing means whether said laterally projecting means has fully retracted from said mold cavity; moving said compressor/stripper means and said pallet downward to strip from said mold box said CM block disposed on said pallet when said sensing means has sensed that said laterally projecting means has fully retracted from said mold cavity; transferring said CM block and pallet laterally away from below said mold box; placing another pallet below said mold box and vertically raising said pallet to said mold box to provide a mold bottom; and vertically raising said compressor/stripper means from said mold box and disposing it out of the path of said laterally movable CM material feed means.
- 2. A biaxial casting method for making a concrete masonry or CM block including a pair of opposing spaced face shells with at least three spaced webs extending transversely to and interconnecting said face shells and forming at least two cavities which are boundaried by said webs and portions of said face shells and extend through said CM block in the direction of the axis of casting of said CM block, said method comprising:
- (a) providing a CM casting machine with a mold including a mold box comprising four substantially vertically disposed side walls disposed in substantially rectangular plan configuration with a first pair of said side walls being longer than the second pair of said side walls;
- (b) providing at least two mold cores substantially vertically disposed in said mold with said mold cores having substantially vertically disposed side walls arranged in substantially rectangular plan configuration, with a wall of each of said mold cores spaced from each other and other walls of said mold cores being spaced from side walls of said mold box so as to form a mold cavity which has a plan configuration similar to the plan configuration of said CM block to be made, with the vertical axis of said mold cores extending in the direction of said axis of casting of said CM block to be made, at least one of said mold cores containing means for laterally projecting from within the periphery of said mold core to outwardly of at least one side of said mold core in direction of a second axis which extends in like longitudinal direction as said first longer mold side walls and substantially normal to said axis of casting to provide a temporary mold core laterally extendable into said mold cavity in said direction of said second axis;
- (c) providing a mold bottom for said mold box;
- (d) extending said laterally projecting means outwardly from at least one of said mold cores into said mold cavity to provide said temporary mold core laterally extending into said mold cavity along said second axis;
- (e) feeding CM mix into said mold cavity;
- (f) compressing said CM mix in said mold cavity to form said CM block having an opening extending through at least one of said webs of said CM block;
- (g) retracting said laterally projecting means to within said periphery of said mold core containing same to remove said temporary mold core from said mold cavity and sensing with a sensing means whether said laterally projecting means has fully retracted from said mold cavity;
- (h) removing said mold bottom when said sensing means has sensed that said laterally projecting means has fully retracted from said mold cavity; and
- (i) removing said cast CM block from said mold box.
- 3. A biaxial casting method for making a concrete masonry block including a pair of opposing spaced face shells with at least three spaced webs extending transversely to interconnect said shells and form at least two cavities bounded by said webs and portions of said face shells, said cavities extending through said block in the direction of the axis of casting of said block, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a CM casting machine with a mold including a mold box comprising four substantially vertically disposed side walls disposed in substantially rectangular plan configuration with a first pair of said side walls being longer than the second pair of said walls and providing at least two mold cores substantially vertically disposed in said mold;
- (b) providing a mold bottom for said mold box;
- (c) extending a laterally projecting means outwardly from at least one of said mold cores into the mold cavity to provide a temporary mold core laterally extending into said mold cavity along an axis generally perpendicular to said casting axis;
- (d) feeding concrete mix into said mold cavity;
- (e) compressing said mix in said mold cavity to form said block having an opening extending through at least one of said webs of said block;
- (f) retracting said laterally projecting means from said concrete mix in said mold cavity to within the periphery of said mold core containing same to remove said temporary mold core from said mold cavity and sensing with a sensing means whether said laterally projecting means has fully retracted from said mold cavity;
- (g) removing said mold bottom when said sensing means has sensed that said laterally projecting means has fully retracted from said mold cavity; and
- (h) removing said cast block from said mold box.
- 4. A biaxial casting method for making a concrete masonry block including at least one face shell with apparatus adapted to be disposed in a mold of a CM casting machine with said mold including a mold box comprising side wall means, said casting apparatus comprising at least one mold core means forming a mold cavity with said side wall means, said mold core means including means for laterally projecting outwardly from said mold core means into said mold cavity, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a mold bottom for said casting apparatus;
- (b) extending said laterally projecting means from said mold core means into said mold cavity to provide a temporary mold core extending into said mold cavity along a first axis;
- (c) feeding concrete mix into said mold cavity along a second axis angularly offset from said first axis;
- (d) compressing said mix into said mold cavity to form said concrete masonry block;
- (e) retracting said laterally projecting means to within the periphery of said mold core means to remove said laterally projecting means from said mold cavity;
- (f) sensing with a sensing means whether said laterally projecting means has completely retracted from said mold cavity;
- (g) removing said mold bottom only when said sensing means has sensed that said laterally projecting means has completely retracted in accordance with step (f); and
- (h) removing said cast concrete block from said mold box.
- 5. The biaxial casting method of 4, wherein said mold includes a pair of substantially identical said mold core means with said laterally projecting means being respectively extendable and retractable along two different angularly offset first axes, and comprising the further step of extending said respective laterally projecting means along their respective first axis to provide a triaxially cast block.
- 6. The biaxial casting method of claim 4, wherein said mold core means includes at least a pair of said mold core means each having said laterally projecting means to form a concrete masonry block including a pair of opposing spaced face shells with at least three spaced webs extending transversely to interconnect said shells and form at least two cavities bounded by said webs and portions of said face shells.
- 7. The biaxial casting method of claim 4, comprising the further step of supplying air under pressure to a nipple means positioned within said mold core means to be blocked off by the outer periphery of said laterally projecting means in its fully retracted mode, and wherein said sensing step of subparagraph (f) includes the further step of detecting the occurrence of a predetermined minimum back pressure applied to said nipple means by blockage thereof with said outer periphery of said laterally projecting means to determine full retraction thereof, or incomplete retraction thereof when said detected pressure is below said predetermined minimum back pressure.
- 8. The biaxial casting method of claim 7, wherein said back pressure is determined with a pressure gauge indicating to an operator when said back pressure is greater than or equal to said predetermined minimum back pressure to enable manual intervention by said operator to prevent removal of said mold bottom when said indicated pressure is less than the predetermined minimum back pressure.
- 9. The biaxial casting method of claim 4, wherein said laterally projecting means is pneumatically extended and retracted.
- 10. The biaxial casting method of claim 9, wherein said laterally projecting means is extended into said mold cavity through an opening in a side wall of said mold core means.
- 11. The biaxial casting method of claim 10, comprising the further step of wiping an outer periphery of said laterally projecting means as it retracts into said mold core means utilizing sweeper gaskets disposed between said outer periphery of said laterally projecting means and within said mold core means.
- 12. The biaxial casting method of claim 10, wherein air is supplied into a hollow portion of said laterally projecting means against one side of a stationary piston head within said laterally projecting means to extend said laterally projecting means, and wherein air is sequentially supplied to within said laterally projecting means against an opposite side of said piston to retract said laterally projecting means.
- 13. The biaxial casting method of claim 12, comprising the further step of venting air from within said mold core means through said laterally projecting means to break a negative pressure and vacuum around said outer periphery of said laterally projecting means within said mold cavity filled with CM material as said laterally projecting means starts to retract from its extended mode.
- 14. The biaxial casting method of claim 13, comprising the further step of relieving air pressure between said laterally projecting means and said mold core means as said laterally projecting means starts to retract from said extended mode.
- 15. The biaxial casting method of claim 14, comprising the further step of supplying air under pressure to a nipple means positioned within said mold core means to be blocked off by said outer periphery of said laterally projecting means in its fully retracted mode, and wherein said sensing step of subparagraph (f) includes the further step of detecting the occurrence of a predetermined minimum back pressure applied to said nipple means by blockage thereof with said outer periphery of said laterally projecting means to determine full retraction thereof, or incomplete retraction thereof when said detected pressure is below the predetermined minimum back pressure.
Parent Case Info
This is a continuation of Ser. No. 023,941, filed 3/10/87, now abandoned, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 698,373, filed 2/4/85, now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (11)
Foreign Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Date |
Country |
496182 |
Apr 1976 |
SUX |
933469 |
Jun 1982 |
SUX |
Continuations (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
23941 |
Mar 1987 |
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Parent |
698373 |
Feb 1985 |
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