Orientation-blow molding equipment

Equipment for producing biaxially oriented containers comprising:

• a jig having a neck support which can hold the neck of a plastic piece positioned upside down, a mandrel provided beneath said neck support, and a core shaft for longitudinal orientation of said piece which is provided inside said mandrel so as to be freely movable upwardly or downwardly and which has a blow-molding air passage;
• a core metal movable in a continuous path in a heating chamber, said core metal having a cylindrical holder, a hollow shaft freely rotatably supported at the center of said cylinder, a cylinder provided at the upper end of said shaft, a support holder extending from the top of said cylinder for supporting said mandrel of said jig, and a gear provided at the lower end of said shaft for transmitting a rotational motion;
• said heating chamber having a rotary disk to which a plurality of said core metals are attached, said heating chamber being provided with several sets of heating elements and heat-exhausting damper devices so as to provide therein several heating zones along the transfer passage of said core metals attached to said rotary disk for heating stepwise said piece mounted on said jig;
• a shielding plate having radial fins which are rotated in association with the movement of said core metal for preventing thermal atmosphere at the exit of said heating chamber from being suddenly disturbed and preventing a thermal influence on the piece;
• a support holder braking means for stopping the rotation of said core metal, said braking means being provided at a position a predetermined distance apart from said shielding plate in the direction of the rotation of said rotary disk;
• a mold loader which catches said jig holding the thermally processed piece for loading the same from the core metal which has stopped rotating by the action of said support holder braking means to a blow molding machine of rotary station type;
• a means for rotating said jig while transferring said jig from said heating chamber to said molding machinery;
• a blow molding machine of rotary station type having a plurality of molds and provided beneath said molds with a cylinder rod for pushing upwardly said orienting core shaft of said jig placed in each said mold and for introducing compressed air into the same;
• a mechanism for pushing up said core shaft;
• an unloading means for taking out said jig from said mold placed at the final station of said blow molding machine;
• a conveyor having a plurality of attachment hooks for removing the jig from said unloading means to release the molded container from said jig and for catching the mandrel of the thus released jig to mount a new piece thereonto;
• and
• a transfer apparatus provided at a corner of said conveyor for mounting said jig which has advanced to said corner onto the core metal positioned at the entrance of said heating chamber.