Injection molding system including a melt filter, the filter being located before first instance of melt accumulation

Abstract

There is provided an injection unit. The injection unit comprises an extruder that is structured to continuously melt, in use, a molding material; a nozzle that is connectable, in use, to a mold; a melt accumulator that is structured to selectively buffer and transfer, in use, the molding material towards the nozzle, the melt accumulator including a first melt accumulator and a second melt accumulator selectively connectable to the extruder via a distribution assembly, and wherein each of the first melt accumulator and the second melt accumulator defines a respective melt accumulation volume; the melt accumulation volume being configured to accumulate and hold, for a first time after being molten by the extruder a volume of molding material sufficient to transfer for downstream processing; a melt filter placed before the melt accumulation volume, such that the molding material if subjected to filtering prior to entering the melt accumulation volume, the melt filter being configured to remove contaminants from the molding material.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.