Moulding-machines
The Encyclopedia of Founding (1892)
These machines, in infinite variety, are now recognized everywhere as competent to produce castings of limited variety, in a far superior manner than is possible by the old methods. Besides the numerous excellent gear-moulding machines of Scott, Whittaker, Buckley & Taylor, and Simpson,--which, with a small portion of the pattern corresponding to the gear to be moulded, are all able to produce gears from 9 inches diameter up, either spur, bevel, mitre, mortise, or worm, plain or shrouded,--we have numbers of machines for the production of general work of all descriptions. Some of these machines are still worked with hand-levers, but these are being rapidly superseded by steam, hydraulic, and pneumatic contrivances, which, with their several automatic arrangements, demonstrate the capacity of their builders to overcome difficulties which until very lately seemed beyond the bounds of possibility. The "Tabor" moulding-machine may be used with either steam, water, or compressed air; but steam is preferable in most cases, because it can be easily obtained without the use of special auxiliary machinery of any kind. The rammer system of this machine gives greater pressure at parts which would otherwise be too soft. The "Yielding Platen" moulding-machine is provided on the top with a rubber bag containing water or compressed air, and the bottom of the machine is caused to rise by compressed air, thus forcing the flask with its sand against the rubber bag, which, they claim, presses the sand in a manner impossible by any other known method. The "Teetor" moulding-machine provides means for holding the flask securely and turning it over; also for jarring the pattern and holding the same perfectly level, to allow a clean separation of the mould therefrom.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When The Encyclopedia of Founding wrote this in 1892, the state of the art was hand-, steam-, hydraulic- and air-driven squeezers like the Tabor and Teetor, and much of the excitement was over machines that could mould gear teeth from a single tooth-segment pattern. Cast gear teeth have since almost vanished from engineering practice, replaced by hobbed, shaped and ground teeth; the moulding machine itself became a fully automatic production line, the landmark being the flaskless vertically parted DISAMATIC introduced in Denmark in 1962, which turns out hundreds of moulds an hour without an operator touching the sand. Green sand rammed by pressure is now only one option among many: shell moulding with resin-coated sand, chemically bonded no-bake moulds, lost-foam and investment casting all took work away from the squeezer. Since the 2010s sand moulds and cores have also been printed directly by binder-jetting machines, with no pattern at all — the one thing every machine on this page assumed you had to have.
Written for this edition, 2026.