Method for manufacturing dental aspirators

Method for manufacturing a plurality of plastic dental aspirators comprising the steps of

• (a) extruding a smooth plastic continuous length tube,
• (b) shaping the continuous length tube into a plurality of the dental aspirators by enclosing the continuous length tube within chilled mold chains while the continuous length tube is still warm and soft, driving the chilled mold chains in an endless path and sealing each other around the continuous length tube to form a bellows portion and a profiled portion for each dental aspirator, the bellows portion spaced from the ends of the dental aspirator and limited to a minor portion of the dental aspirator length, a major portion of the dental aspirator length having a smooth surface, the bellows portion containing multiple folds, each fold having a first and a second cup-shaped portion with opposed concave surfaces, the first cup-shaped portion having a smaller width than the second cup-shaped portion in order to be snapped into the second cup-shaped portion when the dental aspirator is bent in the bellows portion for maintaining a bow,
• (c) cutting the continuous length tube at a separation point between each axially adjacent dental aspirator adjacent the profiled portion to form a plurality of separate dental aspirators, the separation point forming an end portion of a suction end of each separate dental aspirator.