Steam exhaust ports are located around a perimeter of a direct chill casting pit, at various locations from below the top of the pit to the pit bottom to rapidly remove steam from the casting pit with addition of dry excess air. Gas introduction ports are also located around a perimeter of the casting pit and configured to introduce an inert gas into the casting pit interior.

A prediction method for mold breakout based on feature vectors and hierarchical clustering is disclosed, which comprises: respectively extracting temperature feature vectors of historical data under sticking breakout and normal conditions and on-line actually measured data to establish a feature vector sample set; performing normalization and hierarchical clustering on the sample set; and checking and judging whether the feature vectors extracted on line belong to a breakout cluster, and then identifying and predicting mold breakout. The method avoids the steps of tedious adjustment and modification of alarm threshold and other parameters, overcomes the artificial dependence of the previous breakout prediction method, has good robustness and mobility; and through temperature feature extraction, achieves accurate identification of sticking breakout temperature patterns, avoids missing alarms and significantly reduces the number of times of false alarms, and greatly reduces the data calculation amount and calculation time, guaranteeing the timeliness of on-line prediction.

A method is provided for measuring a shift between a carrier for a pattern (a carrier plate) and a flask and preventing a defect caused by a shift in the cavity parts. The method for preventing a defect caused by the shift in the cavity parts in molding a cope and a drag with flasks by using a cope flask (110) that is assembled with a carrier plate (130) for the cope flask and a drag flask (120) that is assembled with a carrier plate (140) for the drag flask, comprises the steps of measuring a shift between the carrier plate (130) for the cope flask and the cope flask (110), measuring a shift between the carrier plate (140) for the drag flask and the drag flask (120), measuring a shift between the cope flask (110) and the drag flask (120) that have been assembled, determining if a shift in cavity parts is within an allowable range, wherein the data on the shift is obtained based on the shift between the carrier plate (130) for the cope flask and the cope flask (110), the shift between the carrier plate (140) for the drag flask and the drag flask (120), and the shift between the cope flask (110) and the drag flask (120, that have been assembled.

A method is provided for measuring a shift between a carrier for a pattern (a carrier plate) and a flask and preventing a defect caused by a shift in the cavity parts. The method for preventing a defect caused by the shift in the cavity parts in molding a cope and a drag with flasks by using a cope flask (110) that is assembled with a carrier plate (130) for the cope flask and a drag flask (120) that is assembled with a carrier plate (140) for the drag flask, comprises the steps of measuring a shift between the carrier plate (130) for the cope flask and the cope flask (110), measuring a shift between the carrier plate (140) for the drag flask and the drag flask (120), measuring a shift between the cope flask (110) and the drag flask (120) that have been assembled, determining if a shift in cavity parts is within an allowable range, wherein the data on the shift is obtained based on the shift between the carrier plate (130) for the cope flask and the cope flask (110), the shift between the carrier plate (140) for the drag flask and the drag flask (120), and the shift between the cope flask (110) and the drag flask (120, that have been assembled.

A product comprising recycled metal fragments and an alloying supplement, and methods and system for producing same. In some examples, the product comprises a container, shot blasted pieces of aluminum alloy wheels and an alloying supplement. In some examples, the product also comprises an indication on the container of a composition estimate of the combined shot blasted pieces and alloying supplement. In other examples, the indication and/or the alloying supplement may be provided by a company in the business of providing alloying supplements.

[Problem] To provide casting equipment and a casting method that can easily track and extract measurement data across multiple processes.

[Solution] There is provided casting equipment 1 comprising a control device that acquires, regarding multiple processes in the casting equipment 1, specific data regarding casting molds in each frame, and that associates the specific data for the respective processes with the casting molds, separately for the casting molds in each frame; and a display device provided, with respect to a first process among the multiple processes and a second process later than the first process, on equipment for executing the second process; wherein the control device displays, on the display device, the specific data for the first process associated with the casting molds that are to be processed in the second process.

[Problem] To provide casting equipment and a casting method that can easily track and extract measurement data across multiple processes.

[Solution] There is provided casting equipment 1 comprising a control device that acquires, regarding multiple processes in the casting equipment 1, specific data regarding casting molds in each frame, and that associates the specific data for the respective processes with the casting molds, separately for the casting molds in each frame; and a display device provided, with respect to a first process among the multiple processes and a second process later than the first process, on equipment for executing the second process; wherein the control device displays, on the display device, the specific data for the first process associated with the casting molds that are to be processed in the second process.

A system for setting a specific value of a variable operating parameter of a machine usable with a plurality of different tools each requiring a different specific value of the operating parameter. The system may include a tag associated with a specific tool and containing stored data of a predetermined desired value of an operating parameter of the machine for the specific tool, a reader of the tool stored data of the desired value and a controller of the machine which uses at least some of the stored data to set the predetermined desired value of the variable operating parameter of the machine for its use of the specific tool or of a variable operating parameter of another machine which is dependent on the specific value of at least some of the stored data of the tag of the specific tool used in the machine. The machine may be one of a battery grid casting machine, a battery grid pasting machine, a battery paste making machine, a battery paste drying oven, a battery grid or plate cutting or trimming machine, a battery plate stacking machine, a robotic palletizing machine, or the like.

A management system includes: an acquisition unit acquiring melting information pertaining to original molten metal, for each of melting furnaces; a first assignment unit assigning a ladle serial number to a ladle receiving the original molten metal; a melting management unit associating a furnace number, the number of tappings from the one melting furnace, and the melting information on the one melting furnace with each other, and storing associated items; a ladle management unit associating the ladle serial number, the furnace number, and the number of tappings with each other, and storing associated items in a storage medium; and a pouring management unit associating an identifier of the mold with the ladle serial number, in response to the pouring device pouring the molten metal in the conveyed ladle into the mold, and storing associated items in the storage medium.

A management system includes: an acquisition unit acquiring melting information pertaining to original molten metal, for each of melting furnaces; a first assignment unit assigning a ladle serial number to a ladle receiving the original molten metal; a melting management unit associating a furnace number, the number of tappings from the one melting furnace, and the melting information on the one melting furnace with each other, and storing associated items; a ladle management unit associating the ladle serial number, the furnace number, and the number of tappings with each other, and storing associated items in a storage medium; and a pouring management unit associating an identifier of the mold with the ladle serial number, in response to the pouring device pouring the molten metal in the conveyed ladle into the mold, and storing associated items in the storage medium.