Thermoforming, filling, and capping receptacles

An apparatus for making a receptacle from a generally flat thermoplastic blank, the apparatus comprising:

• an upstream conveyor extending along a path in a transport direction through a loading station, a heating station downstream of the loading station, and a forming station downstream from the heating station, the conveyor having a plurality of supports forming a plurality of respective throughgoing apertures spaced apart in the direction;
• means at the loading station for positioning a respective blank atop each of the apertures of the conveyor with a central region of each blank being exposed through the respective aperture and a periphery of each blank engaging and supported by the respective support, the loading means including
• a supply hopper holding a stack of the blanks and having a vertical side wall formed at a base of the stack with a slot having a height equal generally to a height of a one of the blanks;
• a slide displaceable at the base of the stack between a retracted position mainly outside the hopper and an advanced position outside the hopper;
• means for reciprocating the slide synchronously with the conveyor from the retracted to the advanced position for pushing a blank at the base of the stack out through the slot;
• and
• means adjacent the hopper for picking up the blanks pushed through the slot and setting them on the conveyor;
• drive means connected to the conveyor for advancing it and the blanks carried on it step-wise through the heating and forming stations;
• means at the heating station for heating at least the central region of each blank;
• a die forming a cavity open transversely toward the path at the forming station;
• a piston at the forming station displaceable transversely across the path into and out of the die;
• and
• means for displacing the piston into the die at the forming station, thereby pressing the heated central region of the blank therein into the die cavity and thereby forming the blank at the forming station into a receptacle.

A method of making and filling receptacles comprising the steps of:

• displacing an upstream conveyor step-wise along a path in a transport direction through a loading station, a heating station downstream of the loading station, and a forming station downstream from the heating station with apertures of the conveyor stopping momentarily in each of the stations;
• displacing a downstream conveyor in the direction from an inverting station immediately downstream of the forming station and through a filling station;
• setting a respective flat thermoplastic blank atop each of the apertures of the upstream conveyor in the loading station with a central region of each blank exposed through the respective aperture;
• heating at least the central region of each blank to a softening point in the heating station;
• displacing a piston in the forming station from a lower position across the path and into and out of a die on the other side of the path while the piston engages the heated central region of the blank in the forming station to form the blank at the forming station into a downwardly open receptacle;
• inverting the receptacles in the inverting station downstream of the forming station and setting the inverted receptacles onto the downstream conveyor upstream of the filling station;
• and
• filling the inverted receptacles in the filling station.