- Flask (foundry)
A flask is a type of
tooling used to contain amold inmetal casting . A flask has only sides, and no top or bottom, and forms a frame around the mold, which is typically made ofmolding sand . The shape of a flask may be square, rectangular, round or any convenient shape. A flask can be any size so long as it is larger than thepattern being used to make the sand mold. Flasks are commonly made ofsteel ,aluminum or even wood. A simple flask has two parts, the cope and the drag, and more elaborate flasks may have three or even four parts.Flask Design
Flasks are often designed with bars which extend span two opposite sides. The bars act as reinforcement to the molding sand which is relatively weak in
tensile strength . The bars help support the sand through the molding and pouring operation.Flasks are designed with an alignment or registration feature so that the two flasks can be aligned to one another to insure a
casting can be more dimensionally accurate.Flasks will usually have handles or
trunions designed into their construction which assist in handling the flasks withcranes or other lifting machinery.Some flasks are used to form a mold and they are removed before pouring the casting so another mold can be made. Other flasks are designed to contain the mold through the pouring operation, and then the casting is shaken out of the mold. The flasks are then used again and again.
Flasks are usually (though not always) the property of the foundry making the casting. The amount of available flasks can be a limiting factor in the overall production rate.
References
*Citation
last = Beeley
first = Peter
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
publication-date =
date =
year = 2001
title = Foundry Technology
edition = Second
volume =
series =
publication-place =Oxford, UK
place =
publisher =Butterworth-Heinemann
pages =
page =448
id =
isbn =0 7506 4567 9
doi =
oclc =
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=nYQFfqjY-LwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Foundry+Technology&sig=EwmvCLo-IeEV8uH_hBKBXJHCoiM
accessdate =2008-02-17.
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