Injection blow molding apparatus

An injection blow molding apparatus comprising:

• an injection station, including means at the injection station for injection molding a parison of selected configuration;
• a blowing station, including means at the blowing station for blow molding the parison into the selected finished product;
• an ejection station, product removing means at the ejection station for removing the finished product from the apparatus;
• first, second and third core rod assemblies each having an axis being selectively disposed respectively at each of the injection station, blow station and ejection station, each of said core rod assemblies being mounted on a rotatable index plate having an axis of rotation parallel to the axis of the core rod assemblies, said parison molding means, blow molding means, and product removing means being mounted on a plate means spaced from said index plate so that said core rod assemblies are spaced from their associated parison molding means, blow molding means and product removing means;
• indexing means operatively connected to the index plate for moving the index plate and the core rod assemblies mounted thereon and the parison and finished product thereon rotationally about the axis of the index plate and indexing them, respectively, at the blowing station following the injection station and the ejection station following the blowing station;
• reciprocating means connected to one of said index plate or said plate means for causing relative reciprocation between the core rod assemblies and the associated parison molding means, blow molding means, and product removing means in a direction parallel to the axis of said index plate so that a clamping position is attained at which one core rod assembly cooperates with the parison molding means for forming the parison about a core rod of the core rod assembly, the second core rod assembly cooperates with the blow molding means whereby the parison is blown into the desired configuration to form the selected finished product, and the third core rod assembly cooperates in directing the finished product to the product removing means for removal from the apparatus;
• and
• whereby upon actuation of the reciprocation means the parison is reciprocated and transferred away from the injection molding means, then moved transversely to the blow station upon actuation of the indexing means and then reciprocated by the reciprocating means and transferred to the blow molding means and the finished product is transferred from the blow molding means to the product removing means at the ejection station along corresponding paths and by corresponding means.