Delivery apparatus in machine for preparing plastic hollow vessels

A delivery apparatus in a machine for preparing drawn plastic hollow vessels, said delivery apparatus comprising:

• (A) a mandrel for supporting a preform composed of a plastic material and a hollow vessel formed from the preform;
• (B) a loading means for loading the preform on the mandrel;
• (C) a preheating means having a rotary turret comprising a plurality of supporting seats for supporting the mandrel on the periphery thereof and a heating mechanism arranged along the periphery of the turret to heat the preform loaded on the mandrel;
• (D) a blow-forming means comprising a rotary member having, arranged along the periphery thereof, a plurality of openable and closable blow-forming molds and mandrel-supporting members corresponding to said molds;
• (E) a delivery means for delivering the preheated preform-loaded mandrel to the blow-forming means from the preheating means;
• and
• (F) a withdrawal means for withdrawing the blow-formed vessel-loaded mandrel from the blow-forming means;
• wherein said loading means comprises:
• (1) a preform supply mechanism for supplying the preform;
• (2) a unitary preform-loading and vessel-unloading mechanism for pushing the preform coming from the supply mechanism onto the mandrel to fix the preform thereto and withdrawing the vessel from the vessel-loaded mandrel supplied from the withdrawal means;
• a preform delivery mechanism for delivering the preform-loaded mandrel to the preheating means;
• and
• (4) a vessel delivery mechanism for delivering the vessel withdrawn from the mandrel to the outside of the apparatus from the loading and unloading mechanism;
• wherein said preform-loading and vessel-unloading mechanism comprises:
• (a) a first rotary member,
• (b) a clamping mechanism having grippers arranged equidistantly along the periphery of said first rotary member to hold the neck portions of the preform and vessel,
• (c) an opening and closing drive mechanism for opening and closing the grippers of the clamping mechanism,
• (d) a reciprocating drive mechanism for driving the clamping mechainsm reciprocatively in the axial direction of said first rotary member,
• (e) a second rotary member arranged coaxially with said first rotary member below said first rotary member and spaced therefrom in the axial direction, and
• (f) mandrel supporting seats arranged equidistantly along the periphery of the second rotary members and located at positions coaxial with the positions for gripping the neck portions of the preform and vessel in the clamping mechanism;
• said preform supply mechainsm, said preform delivery mechanism, said vessel withdrawal means and the vessel delivery mechanism being arranged in the recited order in the rotation direction of the first and second rotary member along the periphery of the preform-loading and vessel-unloading mechanism;
• and
• said opening and closing drive mechanism and said reciprocating drive mechanism for the clamping mechanism being timed with each other so that motions (i) and (vi) occur in operation;
• (i) the grippers close to hold the preform from the preform supply mechanism,
• (ii) the grippers move downwardly to insert the preform onto the mandrel,
• (iii) the grippers open to release the preform to the preform delivery mechanism,
• (iv) the grippers close to hold the neck portions of the vessel from the vessel withdrawal means,
• (v) the grippers move upwardly to withdraw the vessel from the mandrel, and
• (vi) the grippers open to release the vessel to the vessel delivery mechanism.