I cast several Times at this Foundry In this Foundry 89-91, great video so You can See A Navy Pouring team in action V/r HT1
That is a nice foundry, and some nice resin-bound molds too. Looks like they are doing some pretty advanced castings. Cool stuff. .
That warning horn would drive me batshit! You KNOW some NERD with a desk job thought that was a requirement because that hoist was moving. Even my airplane has a landing gear up warning silence button. During high stress operations, the last thing these guys need is a stupid horn blaring at them.
I have to agree about the horn. The "safety powers that be" can add so many "safety" items that they can make a safe situation totally unsafe. I see that all the time, and one can get so encumbered in safety gear that sometimes one can hardly walk, the peripheral vision can be blocked, you can't hear anything, etc. and it can create a totally unsafe situation. In a heavy industrial environment, you need a very strong situational awareness to say alive, and you can never get distracted. This is especially true at large construction sites where the next step could very well be your last, but very true in foundry work too. .
I worked in a foundry (USS Prairie AD-15 ) with a steel plate over Fire brick deck, which is absolutely awesome , some a$$hat safety gut wanted to put 12 inch high grating over sand over the steel and firebrick , so any metal we dropped would fall through the grating and we would not have to try not to step on it... thank god the Overhead was so low he could not implement his sucky idea. I also had to install a laser Guard on a Hydraulic Press Break, basically if your hand get to close to the crush point it shuts off , of cousre the guard only worked on production runs, for all the setup (programming) and manual work the Guard was off... No really the Machine had three Modes OFF/ MAN/ AUTO, the Guard only came on in AUTO, 12K your Government tax dollars, the Only time the Machine was ever in Auto the % years I worked there was when we demonstrated how the Guard worked to Safety People that made Us buy and Install it V/r HT1 P.S. Sima San Dog is in California, so If there is a dumb safety rule they had to follow it
That was PUNB Polyurethane No Bake Sand, the Mixing equipment was fully automated, had two set times, 5 or 30 Minutes (think) flip a switch to change the set time sand was delivered by and overhead chute. use a vibrator to set it in. the ventilation was awesome, you can see attached to each furnace a suction ring to catch most exhaust right off the top of the Furnace, no huffing fumes there. every lifting device imaginable to help you, it was a real pleasure to work there . Our Biggest Furnace on the Prairie in LA was a 400 Lb so any bigger casting we went down to San Dog and used theirs, they had a pair of 600's, so they could do a double ladle pour of 1200 Lbs . the Video is a 600 Lb pour
I also like the fact that the Navy guys are learning and maintaining this knowledge base, and it has not completely fallen into private hands. Once an industry gets completely privatized, then too often all the information and technology falls down a black hole and becomes proprietary and hidden. The "Navy Foundry Manual" is a good example of how us little people can benefit from keeping casting techniques open-sourced. There are those who have dismissed the Navy Foundry Manual in its entirety, but I can't tell you how many times I have referenced critical things in that manual, so scratch my head when people make dismissive statements like that, and wonder if they have other motives in mind, or maybe they just like to undermine the "establishment" because they are not part of that system/program. .
it has Now, the Only Navy Foundry I Know of is the Propeller shop In Philly and it is all civilian V/r HT1
That's a bummer. I did buy John Campbell's book, and received it today. It has what appears to be some of the latest innovations in metal casting in use today, or is at least the most recent material that has been published, although I am sure things are changing as we speak. I am going to have to relearn basins, sprues, runners, gating and risering completely and start from scratch, but at least I feel like I understand the bifilm theory, and also understand the 10 rules by John Campbell. .
That was an interesting video, lots of minor detail of how they doing things. I see one guy scraping the vent grooves in the sand with an old file before assembling the mould, using bits of wire/rod flattened on the end in an electric drill to drill vent holes. I was wondering why they didn't use compressed air to blow loose sand out, then I realized they had sprayed on a coating to prevent the iron burning into the sand and were torching off the solvents with the burner.
My dad told me that his ship had a foundry but they melted electrically and couldn't melt when under way. Their furnace apparently used more electricity than the ship could generate.
tenders both AS and AD and Repair Ships ARs had full Foundries. Older Battleships and Carriers had a shop for Relining Bearings. The Navy used electro arc and induction Furnaces. and Power was not the Issue, handling molten metal on a rocking ship was way to much of a safety issue, to be considered acceptable, that said, I have poured underway a few times to Make critical Schedules, normally coming into port. On the Prairie Ad-15 our Issue was cooling water, it took alot of water to keep the induction coil cool, and sometimes the ship just could not support it, as to power, you did not just start the Furnace, it sucked alot of juice, and the engineers had to prepare for it V/r HT1
I miss the SIMAs. I used to love going over to wheel and deal for projects and to see the different shops in action. The sheet metal shop at SIMA Norfolk always did good work for us and the fabrication guys made us a full sonar test boom (think large gantry style boom/crane that was erected to hang some test gear off the bow of the ship). Absolute professionals over there. I wish we still maintained those skills.
[QUOTE...... that said, I have poured underway a few times to Make critical Schedules, ......V/r HT1[/QUOTE] Mark me down as impressed Can you call a Navy man a steely eyed missile man because you sir are a steely eyed missile man Set SCE to Aux indeed!
