Mold support mechanism for an I. S. machine

#This invention relates to a mold mechanism at a blank station of an I. S. type glassware forming machine.

#In the production of glass containers by the press and blow method on the well known I. S. type machine, a gob of glass is provided to a blank or parison mold comprising two mold members or halves. These mold halves are supported by opposed arms of a mold open and close mechanism at a blank station of the machine, which mold members can be closed to form a mold cavity. The glass in the mold cavity is pressed into the required shape of a parison by a plunger moving upwardly into the mold cavity, a lower portion of the glass being forced into a neck ring of the mold. The plunger is then withdrawn and the parison is carried by the neck ring away from the blank station and is transferred to a blow mold station where it is blown to the required shape. In the blow and blow method a gob of glass is provided to the parison mold and is then blown into the required shape of a parison. The shaped parison is again carried by a neckring away from the blank station to a blow mold station.

#It will be understood that the mold members must be accurately located, i.e., there must be a datum from which their position is located with respect to other parts of the machine, particularly the plunger mechanism and the neck ring mechanism. Customarily each mold arm is made up of upper and lower hanger members and the mold halves include downwardly depending hooks which hang on these members with the location of the horizontal surface where the hook is supported defining the datum for the mold. Normally the hooks are located at the top of the mold half but GB 2175296 shows a variant construction in which the mold member has its vertical position determined by a lower hanger member.

#In the accompanying drawings:

#FIG. 1 shows a mold mechanism at a blank station of a double gob glassware forming machine with some parts omitted and with a pair of mold halves in the mechanism;

#FIG. 2 shows a view similar to FIG. 1 but viewed from the other side of the mold mechanism;

#A multi gob glassware forming machine, specifically a double gob machine comprises a mold mechanism, FIGS. 1 & 2, mounted on a table 3 of the machine at a blank station of the machine. The mold mechanism comprises a pivot 2 fixed in the machine and two mold arms 4,6, mounted on the pivot 2 and adapted to support two blank molds, only one, 8, of which is shown in an open condition in FIG. 1. The blank mold 8 comprises two mold members 10,12, which are generally cylindrical in shape and each of which has straight cooling passages 14 extending axially through the mold member from a lower end face 16,18 to an upper end face 20,22 of the mold members. It can be seen that the lower end faces 16, 18 bound a recess 17, 19 extending round an outer face of a lower end portion of the mold members, and the cooling passages 14 open into the recesses 17, 19 when the mold members are in position. It will be understood that the mechanism illustrated is adapted to have two blank molds, i.e. four mold members, and that the mold members are all similar as are the means for supporting the mold members in the mold mechanism. While the mold open and close mechanism is illustrated in the double gob configuration, it could also be single or double gob.

#The mold arm 4 supports, on a generally vertical support rod 23, an upper mold support 24, and a spacer 26 which determines the height of the upper mold support 24 with respect to the mold arm 4. The upper mold support 24 comprises two curved ridges 28, only one of which can be seen in FIG. 1. The corresponding hook or curved ridge 30 on the mold member will be located behind the curved ridge when the mold is in place. A block 32 secured to the support 24 engages with a corresponding slot (shown at 34 on the mold member 12) in the mold member 10 accurately to locate the mold member 10 in position on the support 24.

#The mold arm 4 also supports on the rod 23 a lower mold support 36 and a spacer 38 between the mold support 36 and the arm 4 which determines the height of the lower mold support 36 with respect to the mold arm 4. The lower mold support 36 defines an air plenum chamber 39 for the supported mold halves and serves not only to supply cooling air to the mold supported mold half but also to vertically locate the lower end portion of the mold member. The air chamber member 39 comprises an upper member 46 and a lower member 50 secured together by bolts 58 through holes 52 in the member 46 and 54 in the member 50. The lower member 50 is recessed and comprises two air inlets 60 and 62. The inlet 60 leads into a recess 64, the inlet 62 leads into a recess 66 separated from the recess 64 by a wall 68. The two members 46 and 50 when secured together provide two plenum chambers. By a plenum chamber we mean a chamber in which the entry to the chamber is sufficiently spaced from the exits to the chamber that a substantially uniform pressure is provided at the exits. The upper member 46 comprises two generally semicircular vertical surfaces 40 which are to be proximate the side wall of a supported mold. These vertical surfaces 40 are adjacent two horizontal supporting surfaces 42. The surfaces 42 are flat and generally semicircular in plan and have a series of curved apertures 44 formed in them which open into the plenum chambers formed by the recesses 64 and 66 and which are adapted to correspond with the cooling passages of the mold members, i.e. the passages 14 of the mold member 10 opening into the end face 16. When the mold member 10 is in position as shown in FIG. 5, it is positively located by the lower mold support. The chamber member 39 enters the recess 17, the bottom mold surface or face 16 engages the horizontal support surface 42, and the vertical surfaces 40 engage the outer circumference of the mold member. The apertures 44 are positioned so that they will be in communication with the lower ends of the cooling passages in the mold member. The hook 30 is spaced vertically from the ridge and upper support 24 and accordingly is not supported by the upper support. The mold is supported vertically at the bottom of the mold where the horizontal bottom surface of the mold 16 rests on the horizontal supporting surface of the upper portion 46 of the lower support.