Method and apparatus for producing cast structures

US5641014A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Allison Engine Company, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Kurt F. O'Connor · Carmel, US
• James Paul Hoff · Greenwood, US
• Donald J. Frasier · Greenwood, US
• Ralph Edmund Peeler · Reelsville, US
• Heidi Mueller-Largent · Indianapolis, US
• Floyd Freeman Trees · Bloomington, US
• James Rodney Whetstone · Indianapolis, US
• John H. Lane · Indianapolis, US
• Ralph Edward Jeffries · Indianapolis, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 7, 1995
• Grant date: Jun 24, 1997
• Expiry date: Jun 7, 2015

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10T428/12493
• WIPO field: Materials, metallurgy
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for producing a cast structure. In one embodiment of the present invention an alloy casting mold has molten alloy injected therein to facilitate completely filling a part cavity within the mold. Further, an alloy charge pressure control device is utilized to reduce the charge pressure of the molten alloy during its injection into the mold cavity to minimize distortion and creep of the ceramic shell. In one form of the present invention the charge pressure control device removes excess alloy so as to reduce the head pressure of the molten alloy thereby eliminating the undesirable creep of the ceramic shell.