Apparatus for mold aligning in a compression molding machine

Abstract

A mold aligning method and device for a compression molding machine which includes a bed, a plurality of uprights standing upright on the bed, a crown block joined to the tops of the uprights, a slide block guided for vertical sliding movement by the uprights, and a hydraulic cylinder actuator mounted on the crown block to drive the slide block for vertical sliding movement, for maintaining an upper mold attached to the lower surface of the slide block in parallel to a mating lower mold during a compression-molding operation. The mold aligning device includes a plurality of mold position adjusting cylinder actuators disposed on the bed, a plurality of position detectors associated respectively with the mold position adjusting cylinder actuators to detect the strokes of the latter, a hydraulic source for driving the mold position adjusting cylinder actuators, and a control unit for controlling the strokes of the piston rods of the mold position adjusting cylinder actuators with reference to the zero points of the piston rods of the mold position adjusting cylinder actuators determined beforehand. The zero points are determined by placing the upper mold in close contact with the lower mold and extending the piston rods of the mold position adjusting cylinder actuators so that the piston rods are pressed against the lower surface of the slide block. The strokes of the piston rods are controlled during a compression-molding operation so that the upper mold is maintained precisely in parallel with the lower mold.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.