Sprue and valve assembly for delivering a curable liquid material to a mold cavity

A sprue and valve assembly (22) for delivering a curable liquid material to a mold cavity (26) and thereafter easily cleaned of a cured residual core (52) remaining from the liquid material, said assembly (22) comprising:

• sprue means (34) defining an elongated flow passage (36) for transferring the curable liquid material in a downstream direction toward a mold cavity (26);
• connector means (46) for releasably connecting a supply line (18) of the liquid material to said sprue means (34) at an upstream location;
• valve means (42) surrounding said flow passage (36) and disposed downstream of said connector means (46) for selectively preventing flow of the liquid material through said flow passage (36), said valve means (42) including a valve body (54) and a closure element (56) moveable within said valve body (54) to an open position surrounding said flow passage (36) and to a closed position blocking said flow passage (36);
• and said flow passage (36) having a taper enlarging in the downstream direction for effecting convenient removal of the cured residual core (52), said taper of said flow passage (46) having a uniformly changing cross section;
• and ejector means (80) for forcefully ejecting the cured residual core (52) through said flow passage (36) and through said closure element (56) in a downstream direction away form said connector means (46).