Side gating hot runner apparatus with continuous valve pin movement

A hot runner injection apparatus for side gate molding of a plurality of parts in a plurality of separate mold cavities, the apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of mold cavities, wherein each of the plurality of mold cavities comprises at least a mold core and one or more mold gates;
• a plurality of hot runner nozzles, wherein each of the plurality of hot runner nozzles has a first melt channel along a first axis and a second melt channel along a second axis, the second melt channel being located in a nozzle tip, positioned in the proximity of one of the mold gates;
• a plurality of valve pins and a plurality of valve pin drivers associated with the plurality of hot runner nozzles to control individually the amount of a molten material entering each of the plurality of mold cavities and the timing for injecting the molten material and for blocking a flow of molten material in each mold cavity independently, where each of the plurality of valve pins is coupled with one valve pin driver of the plurality of valve pin drivers, the valve pin driver being moveable back and forth along the first axis, whereby the plurality of valve pins are moveable along the second axis, which is arranged at an angle with respect to the first axis;
• a plurality of independent actuators for displacing the valve pin drivers along the first axis and the valve pins along the second axis and along a plurality of continuous and/or discrete positions relative to the mold gates, whereby the plurality of independent actuators are configured to displace the valve pins at least between
• i) a fully open position,
• ii) a fully closed position where a tip portion of each valve pin of the plurality of valve pins enters the mold cavity,
• iii) a subsequent closed position where the tip portion of each valve pin of the plurality of valve pins is moved outside the mold cavity and inside one of the one or more mold gates,
• iv) a position closer to the gate than the full open position to control the rate of flow before the full closing position of the valve pin;
• and
• whereby the plurality of independent actuators are further configured to adjust the speed of the valve pins movement relative to the mold gates and relative between the plurality of hot runner nozzles when the plurality of valve pins are moved from the fully open position to the fully closed position and whereby the position of each valve pin in the open position is adjustable either continuously or incrementally/discretely to reduce the amount of the molten material entering a corresponding mold cavity and/or to adjust the injection pressure of the molten material entering each mold cavity and thus to reduce an injection pressure force applied laterally by the molten material to the mold core.