Stretch blow-moulding thermoplastics articles

Apparatus for stretch blow-moulding thermoplastics articles from heated parisons of a thermoplastics material, which comprises:

• (a) tube-forming and advancing means arranged for producing a continuously extruded thermoplastics tube of predetermined radial dimensions, and for advancing the continuously extruded tube longitudinally;
• (b) first severance means repeatedly operable upon a leading end of the advanced tube so as to sever therefrom a succession of thermoplastics sticks each of which comprises a predetermined integral multiple of parison lengths greater than one;
• (c) heating means arranged for heating the sticks individually to orientation temperature;
• (d) collation means arranged to form the sticks into groups of associated sticks;
• (e) presentation means operable in succession upon the groups of sticks subsequent to their heating by the heating means, to advance the sticks of each group longitudinally whilst disposed in parallel, laterally aligned relation within their group;
• (f) second severance means repeatedly operable simultaneously upon the leading ends of the sticks of that group which is at the time being presented by the presentation means to form from those sticks a plurality of successive parison groups each formed of one parison per stick and being equal in number to the said predetermined integral multiple of parison lengths;
• and
• (g) stretch blow-moulding means repeatedly operable to perform a multiple stretch blow-moulding operation upon each of the parison groups produced by the second severance means whereby from each parison group to form a plurality of thermoplastics articles equal in number to the number of sticks in a said group of sticks.