Apparatus, method and article for applying a melted adhesive

An apparatus for dispensing a hot melt such as a molten adhesive obtained from a solid form such as a rod stored on a spool, comprising:

• manually held dispenser means having an outlet for dispensing melted adhesive and having an inlet to receive the rod, said dispenser means having heating means to heat the rod entered into the dispenser through the inlet and having means for normally closing the outlet and enable a pressurization of molten adhesive inside the dispenser means;
• flexible conduit means extending from the vicinity of the spool to the inlet of the dispenser;
• and
• drive means in the vicinity of the spool for pushing the rod through the conduit means into the inlet of the dispenser means;
• sealing means at inlet and through and in contact with which the rod is pushed into the dispenser means for preventing the escape of molten adhesive from inside the dispenser means;
• cooling means, located in heat exchange relationship with the vicinity of the sealing means, to remove heat from the sealing means so as to maintain the temperature of the rod, at the sealing means below the softening temperature of the rod and to retain the shape of the rod and its sealing contact with the seal with a sufficiently short length of solidified adhesive plug between the sealing means and the inside of the dispenser means so that the drive means can push the rod through the conduit means into the dispenser means.