Moulding of plastics articles
OwnerConstantinos Siderisinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A composite mould set for use on a conventional type of injection-moulding machine is made up of composite mould halves (10) which are mounted one on each platen (12) of the injection moulding machine. Each mould half (10) carries an array of injection moulding cavities (16) for moulding preforms, and an array of blow moulding cavities (18) for stretch blow moulding of the preforms into a blow moulded product. The respective cavities (16) and (18) are arranged so that they open in a common mould separation direction.
Claims27
1-28. (canceled)
A mould set for use in a method of moulding plastics articles wherein a preform is injection-moulded in an injection moulding cavity and the injection-moulded preform is blow-moulded in a blow-moulding cavity, said mould set comprising an array of injection-moulding cavities and an array of generally elongate blow-moulding cavities, each having a neck region, each of the cavities in each of the arrays being defined by at least two mould parts separable in a respective mould separation direction, wherein the mould separation directions of said injection-moulding cavities and of said blow-moulding cavities each define a common mould separation direction whereby, in use, the mould set may be opened in the common mould separation direction to release both the injection-moulded preforms and the blow-moulded products, wherein the blow-moulding cavities are arranged with their longitudinal axes extending generally perpendicularly to the common mould separation direction, and with their neck regions disposed adjacent the edge of the mould set so as to be externally accessible transversely relative to the axis of said opening and closing movement.
An injection moulding apparatus for injection (stretch) blow-moulding of plastics articles, said apparatus comprising:
- a mould set comprising an array of injection-moulding cavities and an array of generally elongate blow-moulding cavities each having a neck region, each of the cavities in each of the arrays being defined by at least two mould parts separable in a respective mould separation direction, wherein the mould separation directions of said injection-moulding cavities and of said blow-moulding cavities define a common mould separation direction whereby, in use, the mould may be opened in the common mould separation direction to release both the injection-moulded preforms and the blow moulded products, wherein the blow moulding cavities are arranged with their longitudinal axes extending generally perpendicularly to the common mould separation direction, and with their neck regions disposed adjacent the edge of the mould set so as to be externally accessible transversely relative to the axis of said opening and closing movement;
- injection means for injecting plastics material into said injection-moulding cavities to produce said injection-moulded preforms;
- mould opening means for opening and closing said mould set in use to allow release of injection-moulded preforms and blow-moulded products;
- preform transfer means for transferring injection-moulded preforms from the injection-moulding cavities to the blow-moulding cavities;
- and
- blow-moulding means associated with said blow-moulding cavities and operable for blow-moulding injection-moulded preforms thereinto.
A method of blow-moulding plastics articles, which comprises the steps of:
- providing a mould set comprising an array of injection-moulding cavities and an array of generally elongate blow-moulding cavities, each having a neck region, each of the cavities in each of the arrays being defined by at least two mould parts separable in a respective mould separation direction, wherein the mould separation directions of said injection-moulding cavities and of said blow-moulding cavities define a common mould separation direction whereby, in use, the mould may be opened in the common mould separation direction to release both the injection-moulded preforms and the blow moulded products, wherein the blow moulding cavities are arranged with their longitudinal axes extending generally perpendicularly to the common mould separate direction, and with their neck regions disposed adjacent the edge of the mould set and externally accessible transversely relative to the axis of said opening and closing movement;
- locating a plurality of previously injection-moulded preforms in said blow-moulding cavities;
- closing said mould set;
- forming injection-moulded preforms using said injection-moulding cavities;
- stretching and/or blow-moulding said previously injection-moulded preforms into said blow-moulding cavities;
- opening said mould set to release said injection-moulded preforms and said blow-moulded products;
- and
- transferring said injection-moulded preforms to said blow-moulding cavities.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.