Mold for forming container adapter

Abstract

A readily adjustable mold is provided for transforming a heated plastic sheet into an adapter intended to restrain a received article from moving inside a container larger than the article. The adapter to be formed has a base configured to fit snugly within the container and a plurality of projections on the base that are spaced from each other to receive the article snugly therebetween. The mold comprises means including side and bottom walls that define a cavity with peripheral and medial regions, for operatively positioning the plastic sheet for formation of the adapter, and means disposed in the cavity peripheral region and moveable toward and away from the cavity medial region, for selectively locating the projections on the adapter base. The locating means in the peripheral region may include one or more projection-forming member(s) slideably mounted on each of at least two of the side walls for selective movement toward and away from the medial region. Any such member(s) may be independently moveable for such selective movement individually. The peripheral region may further include a removably insertable member adjacent to at least one of the side walls, to reduce at least one outside dimension of the adapted. Inwardly adjacent to that member, another such member may be disposed to further reduce said dimension(s), and may have one or more projection-forming member(s) extending therefrom toward the medial region to help center the received article in its container.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.