High-precision liquid pouring control while keeping lower ladle position and avoiding clash with mold

The automatic pouring of molten metal from a ladle into a mold by a machine requires a high-precision positioning control of the outflow liquid. In the previous studies, the precise falling position controls of the outflow liquid for pouring into the sprue cup of the mold were proposed. However, it is supposed to the increase amounts of splashing and the air entrainment, because the conventional approaches are not considered the height of the pouring mouth of the ladle. Therefore, in this study, we propose a novel approach of positioning control of the outflow liquid which makes the pouring mouth place as low as possible while avoiding clash between the ladle and the mold. In order to achieve the positioning control of the outflow liquid with both the lower pouring mouth position and the clash avoidance, the proposed approach gives the reference trajectory of the ladle movement considering not only the trajectory of the outflow liquid but also the positional relation between the ladle and the mold. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified by laboratory experiments of the automatic pouring system with rectangle-shaped ladle.