System for the formulation and delivery of materials to molding machines

A system for delivering plural materials to a molding machine according to a defined formulation, the system comprising:

• a manifold defining a mixing chamber;
• plural material supply units coupled with the manifold, each one of the plural material supply units configured to contain materials, each one of which differs from others in the plural material supply units, the plural material supply units including at least a first material supply unit containing a first material and a second material supply unit containing a second material;
• a first conduit coupling the first material supply unit with the manifold;
• a second conduit coupling the second material supply unit with the manifold;
• a first valve configured to alternatively open and close the mixing chamber to the first conduit;
• a second valve configured to alternatively open and close the mixing chamber to the second conduit;
• a first actuator coupled with the first valve;
• a second actuator coupled with the second valve;
• and
• a controller configured to operate the first actuator and the second actuator to open and close the first valve and the second valve to admit at least one of the first material and the second material into the mixing chamber according to the defined formulation.

A system for delivering plural materials to plural molding machines according to defined formulations, the system comprising:

• a formulating system including a number of manifolds, each defining a mixing chamber, wherein each one of the plural molding machines is coupled with a unique one of the number of manifolds;
• a set of material supply units coupled with each manifold in the number of manifolds, each material supply unit in the set of material supply units configured to contain a material which differs from other materials in other material supply units in the set material supply units;
• a conduit network coupling all of the material supply units in the set of material supply units with all of the manifolds in the number of manifolds;
• a plural number of valves configured to control communication of the materials between the set of material supply units and the number of manifolds;
• and
• a controller configured to operate a set of actuators to open and close the plural number of valves to selectively admit the materials into the mixing chambers according to the defined formulations.