The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 02, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1997
William L Dresen, Baraboo, WI (US);
James P Hart, Portage, WI (US);
Alltrista Corporation, Indianapolis, IN (US);
Abstract
Multiple legs elevate a central ring bearing, to which a ring-shaped rotatable plastic sheet support carousel is mounted. The carousel is fitted with a ring gear which engages with a drive system to position the carousel and the thermoplastic sheets supported from it. A multi-post vertical press is positioned with two posts extending upwardly interior to the ring bearing, and two posts extending upwardly exterior to the ring bearing. The ring bearing thus extends through the press, allowing the carousel to supply and remove plastic sheets to and from the press. An upper platen and a lower platen are mounted for vertical displacement to the posts, thereby ensuring a high degree of parallelism between the molds mounted to the platens, and accurate twin-sheet thermoforming.