Method for preparing injection molding compound pellets to remove molding compound dust and broken pellets
AssigneeNEC Electronics Corporation
InventorsTroung Hoang, James Vitale, Jr., James Chinn, Gary Kobashigawa, Ion Dobre, Avelard Crisostomo
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An injection molding compound pellet cleaner 10 removes broken pellets and eliminates excessive dust from molding compound pellets for preparation of the pellets for processing in an automatic molding machine. The pellet cleaner includes a vacuum chamber 22 and a perforated canister 50 for holding the pellets 80. A vacuum is generated within the chamber to clean dust from the pellets and to remove broken pellets.
Claims7
A method of processing molding compound pellets, to remove molding compound dust and broken pellets, comprising the steps of:
- loading a plurality of pellets, which are contaminated by molding compound dust and broken pellets, into a container perforated by a plurality of distributed openings;
- transferring the loaded container to a position within a vacuum chamber;
- and
- applying a vacuum source to the vacuum chamber to draw air through the vacuum chamber so that molding compound dust and broken pellets are removed from the perforated container through the distributed openings.
A method of processing molding compound pellets for use in a molding machine to remove molding compound dust and broken pellets, comprising the steps of:
- introducing a plurality of pellets including unbroken pellets and contaminating molding compound dust and broken pellets into a container through a first opening in the container, the container having a wall portion which includes a plurality of second openings having a size and shape which impede passage of the unbroken pellets but allow passage of broken pellets and molding compound dust;
- introducing a vacuum at the container wall portion so that air is drawn into the container through the first opening and then from the container through the second openings to entrain said broken pellets and said compound dust.
A method of processing molding compound pellets for use in a molding machine to remove molding compound dust and broken pellets comprising the steps of:
- introducing the pellets including unbroken pellets, molding compound dust and broken pellets into a container through a first opening therein, the container having a wall portion which includes a plurality of second openings of a size and shape to impede passage of the pellets;
- immersing the container into a vacuum chamber, the container being a cylindrical container wherein the first opening is an open end of the cylindrical container and the container wall portion is a flat bottom wall and a perpendicularly intersecting cylindrical sidewall, the openings being perforations distributed in the cylindrical sidewall and in the flat bottom wall;
- and;
- urging the cylindrical container against a lid having a perforated portion of the vacuum chamber so that the open end of the cylindrical container is opposed said a perforated portion of the vacuum chamber lid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.