A PROCESS FOR MAKING A STRETCH-BLOW MOULDED CONTAINER HAVING AN INTEGRALLY MOULDED HANDLE

• Main Authors: LAMB CHRISTOPHER, ETESSE PATRICK JEAN FRANCOIS, CONNOLLY WILLIAM JOHN CLEVELAND, GERLACH CHRISTIAN GERHARD FRIEDRICH
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Korean
• Published: 27.09.2010
• Subjects: AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; TRANSPORTING; WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE, IN GENERAL

The present invention relates to a process for making a container having an integral handle, comprising the steps of: a) providing a preform (6) in a mould cavity (1); b) stretch-blow moulding the preform (6) to form an intermediate container (8) which comprises at least one, preferably two, convex bubble(s) (9); c) deforming the or each convex bubble (9) by means of an inwardly moving plug (5) to form one or more concave gripping region(s), whilst maintaining the pressure within the intermediate container (8) above 1 bar and whilst the temperature of the material in the gripping region of the intermediate container is maintained at a temperature between the glass transition temperature, T g , and the melt temperature, T m ; d) releasing excess pressure within the container, preferably prior to withdrawing the plug (5) from within the container; and c) ejecting the finished container from the mould cavity (1, 3).