Athy Co-Operative Foundry Limited

A multi-part molding box (known as a casting flask, sometimes referred to as the cope and drag) is prepared to receive the pattern. Moulding boxes are made in segments that may be latched to each other and to end closures. 

The Moulding box will be filled with prepared casting sand. The sand is packed in through a vibratory process called ramming and the surface of the sand may then be stabilized with a sizing compound. 

The pattern is placed on the sand and another molding box segment is added. Additional sand is rammed over and around the pattern. Finally a cover is placed on the box and it is turned and unlatched, so that the halves of the mould may be parted and the pattern with its sprue and vent patterns removed. 

To produce cavities within the casting—such as for liquid cooling in engine blocks and cylinder heads—negative forms are used to produce cores. Usually sand-molded, cores are inserted into the casting box after removal of the pattern.

With a completed mould at the appropriate moisture content, the box containing the sand mold is then positioned for filling with molten metal.-> Casting