Molding multi-layered articles using coinjection techniques

Details Molding multi-layered articles using coinjection techniques Molding multi-layered articles using coinjection techniques

1999-04-29

2001-01-09

Silbaugh, Jan H. (Department: 1732)

Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes

Mechanical shaping or molding to form or reform shaped article

To produce composite, plural part or multilayered article

C264S297100, C264S297200, C264S328800, C264S328140, C425S130000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06171538

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to coinjection molding and particularly relates to an improved apparatus for simultaneously molding a plurality of multi-layered articles.
DEFINITIONS
As used herein:
“First and second materials” is intended to cover at least two materials which are sequentially supplied to an injection mold, it being entirely possible that one or more other materials may be sequentially supplied before, between, or after the first and second materials;
“Balanced Hot Runner” is a temperature controlled heated uninterrupted material conveying system extending from a single input (e.g. a material source or metering valve) to a plurality of outputs (e.g. metering valves or injection mold cavities) comprising a single passage branched into a plurality of passages with each of said plurality of passages, communicating with one of the plurality of outputs, for conveying material therethrough to simultaneously supply equal quantities of the material to each of the outputs;
“Unbalanced Hot Runner” is a temperature controlled heated material conveying system, for the passage of material from an input (e.g. material supply source) to a plurality of outputs (e.g. metering valves for metering the material for supply of metered quantities of the material to injection mold cavities), which is not branched to provide passages of identical cross-section and length and does not divide the supplied material into equal quantities for the simultaneous supply of these quantities each to one of outputs.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The manufacture of pure, or virgin, resin preforms for blow molding containers is well known within the prior art. But since the advent of recycling, it is now possible to manufacture preforms with materials that are compositionally less pure than virgin materials. Such degraded, or recycled, materials not only yield positive environmental benefits in an ecologically fragile era but provide manufacturers with an alternative manufacturing method which allows for substantial reductions in costs.
But, since recycled materials are obtained from post consumer solid waste, certain new manufacturing problems have been encountered that were heretofore previously unknown. For example, manufacturers must now provide, at increased costs, additional equipment for keeping the virgin and recycled materials separate from each other. In addition, multi-layered articles, such as preforms, that are eventually used to form containers for food stuffs, have even further impediments by way of rigid statutory guidelines. The guidelines, enacted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), require that certain minimums must be met, or exceeded, before the containers can be approved as “qualified” to contain food stuffs and before the foods are allowed to be distributed to the consumer population. One extremely noteworthy FDA provision enacted theretowards provides for the assurance of product “cleanliness”.
Currently, in order to meet the FDA cleanliness standards, a container must be configured such that only surfaces of virgin materials contact the foods and beverages therein. Other container surfaces, such as areas for contacting the human mouth, e.g. the dispensing orifice on a soda container, also require virgin material surfaces. As a result, it is economically desirable to provide manufacturers with a apparatus capable of utilizing recycled materials within containers while, at the same time, preventing recycled materials from contacting the very foods and liquids that are to be distributed to, and consumed by, the public.
Some advances towards the aforementioned goal have been attained by using coinjection molding techniques to manufacture multi-layered containers. The multi-layered containers thence produced have interior and exterior surfaces of the container comprised of virgin materials while the fill and support materials located within the interior of the container walls comprise the degraded, less than pure, recycled materials. Consequently, the economies and conservation of utilizing recycled materials is thereby achieved while simultaneously meeting the strict FDA statutory requirements.
Prior art coinjection molding techniques that produce the multi-layered containers described above, often first manufacture a multi-layered preform and then blow mold the preform into the final container. The formation of multi-layered containers are described in detail, for example, in Applicant's U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,550,043 and 5,221,507.
Typically, the preforms are injection molded in multi-cavity molds which may have as many as 96 cavities. These preforms are then simultaneously produced by injecting appropriate amounts of a first and second material, i.e. virgin and recycled, into each of the cavities. To this end, the mold defines a manifold arrangement to convey the two materials to each of the singular cavities. Such an arrangement, as in Applicant's prior patents, is known to convey each of the first and second materials into a singular hot runner before contiguously conveying the materials to the cavities. The combination then allows for a reduction in equipment costs due to the singular hot runner arrangement. The singular conduit repeatedly divides the materials flowing therein into a plurality of flow paths for delivery to each cavity and to thereby ultimately provide each cavity with a substantially equal amount of metered material at substantially the same temperature and at substantially the same time as every other cavity. Yet, with mold arrangements containing large numbers of cavities, such as with forty-eight and ninety-six cavities, the two materials contiguously flowing within a singular conduit have been known to have interface boundary problems between the virgin and recycled materials when conveyed over lengthy distances.
Other prior art multi-cavity mold apparatus, that use coinjection molding to form multi-layered preforms, utilize molds in which a completely separate manifold system for each material, i.e. virgin and recycled, is used to separately convey that specific material to the singular cavities. The separate materials are then, either, injected simultaneously into the cavities using concentric nozzles or injected sequentially into the cavities utilizing a valve arrangement closely adjacent each cavity to control the flow from the separate manifolds into the multi-orifice nozzles. Such arrangements result in molds that are expensive and complex. In addition, such molds result in difficulties in controlling the temperature of the material to be injected into the cavity in a manner such that each mold receives an accurately metered quantity of material at substantially the same temperature.
Prior art injection molding systems for molding preforms simultaneously, with molding material supplied by way of a balanced hot runner, in a plurality of like cavities have utilized cavities in multiples of two in order to simplify the simultaneous supply of the materials, in equal amounts, to the cavities.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus that yields a delivery method for a first and second material that delivers the respective materials at substantially the same temperature and at reduced costs while conveying substantially equal amounts of the respective materials at substantially simultaneous delivery times.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a more distinct division between the recycled and pure materials being contiguously conveyed within the same conduit to the individual mold cavities in order to more accurately provide a substantially equivalent amount of molding materials to each cavity.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus using a multi-cavity coinjection mold which avoids the complex construction and expense of prior art multi-cavity coinjection molds and which provides a low cost, relatively simple, easy to regulate mold which is suitable for use on existing ma

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