Valve pin for accommodating side loading
AssigneeMold-Masters (2007) Limited
InventorBruce Catoen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A valve pin that accommodates side loading for use in a valve-gated nozzle of a hot runner injection molding system is disclosed. The valve pin is operably coupled at a rearward end to an actuating mechanism and includes a shaft that extends through the system such that a forward end thereof engages with a mold gate of a mold cavity. The valve pin shaft has a region forward of the rearward end thereof that accommodates side loading under operating conditions. The region may be a slidable or rotatable interface configured to provide lateral or angular movement between upstream and downstream portions of the valve pin shaft under side loading conditions or may be configured to provide increased flexibility to the valve pin shaft within the region to permit deflection of the valve pin under side loading conditions.
Claims15
An injection molding system comprising:
- a hot runner manifold having a melt channel for receiving a melt stream of moldable material from a melt source;
- a hot runner nozzle having a melt channel for receiving the melt stream from the manifold melt channel and delivering the melt stream to a mold cavity via a mold gate;
- and
- a valve pin having a shaft that extends from an actuation mechanism through at least a portion of the manifold melt channel and the nozzle melt channel such that a forward end of the valve pin is seatable within the mold gate, the valve pin shaft having a rearward segment disposed between the manifold melt channel and the actuation mechanism that is configured to accommodate shifting between the manifold and the actuation mechanism that occurs under operating conditions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.