Abstract: A shipping and installation container for soft tubing. The container includes a substantially cylindrical section that readily receives soft or foam tubing commonly used on heating or cooling conduits in an industrial plant. End caps are provided at opposite ends of the cylindrical section to facilitate stacking and storing the container laden with soft tubing during shipment. The end caps can be readily removed and the cylindrical section then serves as a guide to facilitate installation of the tubing onto industrial conduit.

Abstract: A shipping and installation container for soft tubing. The container includes a substantially cylindrical section that readily receives soft or foam tubing commonly used on heating or cooling conduits in an industrial plant. End caps are provided at opposite ends of the cylindrical section to facilitate stacking and storing the container laden with soft tubing during shipment. The end caps can be readily removed and the cylindrical section then serves as a guide to facilitate installation of the tubing onto industrial conduit.

Abstract: A pickup truck tail gate liner has secured thereto one or more attaching members which confront that surface of the tail gate to which the liner is to be applied. The attaching members are premanently or removably secured to the liner and adhesively bonded to the tail gate without necessitating the provision of any holes in the tail gate.

Abstract: A fastener especially adapted for securing a liner in a pickup truck cargo box and having a bolster at the upper ends of its walls provided with flanges at its inner edge. The fastener comprises a rotatable bolt having a head at one end and an anchor member at its other end through which the bolt threadedly extends. The anchor member may be rotated with the bolt but is of such length as to engage the lower surface of the bolster after limited rotation, thereby enabling continued rotation of the bolt to cause the liner to be clamped between the bolt head, the bolster flange, and the anchor member. The construction is such that securing of a liner in a cargo box requires no openings to be formed in the walls of the cargo box.

Abstract: A thermoforming machine having opposed mold platens includes a linkage system driven in cyclic movement by rotary cam mechanism to cyclically shift the platens between their open and closed position. The cam mechanism is driven by a variable speed motor which is controlled in a manner such that the rotary speed of the cam mechanism during different portions of a cam revolution may be set to a speed which is different than the rotary speed of the cam mechanism during other portions of each revolution. By adjusting the speed differential or by adjusting the angular extent of that portion of a revolution of the cam mechanism over which the different speed is maintained the time duration of any chosen portion of the cycle may be adjusted independently of the time duration of other portions of the cycle.

Abstract: An oscillating canopy is employed in the feeding of an elongate sheet of synthetic plastic material having articles, such as cups, for example, formed in the sheet, to a die which trims the articles from the sheet. The canopy has a downwardly concave curved upper portion upon which the sheet is supported by a series of rollers. The canopy is driven in forward and return strokes in pivotal movement about an axis located at a radial distance from the curved upper portion which is a greater distance from the discharge end of the curved upper portion than from the sheet receiving end so that tension is maintained on the sheet during the feeding stroke. The sheet-supporting rollers are mounted for rotation in one direction only, this direction being that in which the rollers can roll relative to the sheet on the return stroke of the canopy.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for lining the interior of a container with plastic sheet material. An open topped container is elevated upon a support through a passage in a lower die member into contact with the under surface of a sheet of heated thermoplastic material overlying the upper end of the passage. A plug assist member is then employed to deform the sheet into conformation with the interior of the container. Upon withdrawal of the plug assist member, an upper die member is lowered into shearing relationship with the lower die member to shear the sheet around the upper periphery of the container. The support, with the lined container in place, is then further elevated to raise the lined container upwardly through the opening thus sheared in the sheet and through a passage extending vertically through the upper die member. The plastic lined container is discharged from the apparatus by pushing it transversely across the flat upper surface of the upper die member.

Abstract: A method for lining the interior of a container with plastic sheet material. An open topped container is elevated upon a support through a passage in a lower die member into contact with the under surface of a sheet of heated thermoplastic material overlying the upper end of the passage. A plug assist member is then employed to deform the sheet into conformation with the interior of the container. Upon withdrawal of the plug assist member, an upper die member is lowered into shearing relationship with the lower die member to shear the sheet around the upper periphery of the container. The support, with the lined container in place, is then further elevated to raise the lined container upwardly through the opening thus sheared in the sheet and through a passage extending vertically through the upper die member. The plastic lined container is discharged from the apparatus by pushing it transversely across the flat upper surface of the upper die member.

Abstract: An indexing system for synthetic plastics molding machinery, wherein plastic web gripping drive elements are employed to feed a plastic web in planar indexing movements to the molds of the machine, utilizes a conventional pump driven hydraulic motor connected with the web gripping drive elements by drive transmission mechanism incorporating a brake for positively halting the web gripping elements in predetermined position. A stroke measuring control device driven by the drive transmission mechanism in a path of movement corresponding with the indexing moving of the web gripping elements first decelerates the movement of the web gripping elements and then positively halts them in a predetermined position. Alternatively, a photoelectric eye sensitive to the position of the web can stop the web.

Abstract: A trim press for severing cup-shaped articles from a sheet of thermoplastic material in which the articles have been integrally formed as by a vacuum forming operation. A horizontally reciprocable punch is driven to sever articles positioned in a stationary die by a linkage arranged to drive the punch at a relatively slow speed during the severing operation to achieve a smooth shearing separation of the relatively soft thermoplastic material. The sheet is fed into the die in step-by-step movement through vertical sheet guides fixedly mounted in a treadle which is reciprocated with the punch at a proportionate speed. A flexible sheet guide connected between the guides in the treadle and a fixed point on the machine frame flexes to accommodate reciprocation of the treadle while continuously guiding the sheet to the guides on the treadle. Feed fingers mounted on the treadle advance the sheet to the die in step-by-step movement synchronized with the stroke of the punch.

Abstract: A thermoforming machine having opposed mold platens includes a linkage system driven in cyclic movement by a single rotary cam to cyclically shift the platens between their open and closed position. The cam is driven by a variable speed motor which is controlled in a manner such that the rotary speed of the cam during different portions of a cam revolution may be set to a speed which is different than the rotary speed of the cam during other portions of each revolution. By adjusting the speed differential or by adjusting the angular extent of that portion of a revolution of the cam over which the different speed is maintained the time duration of any chosen portion of the cycle may be adjusted independently of the time duration of other portions of the cycle. The platens are mounted for reciprocatory movement upon a three-post frame.

Abstract: Contact heater station mechanism for use in a thermoforming machine for particularly forming thermoplastic synthetic plastic and superplastic metal alloy sheets into shapes, such machines having a sheet transfer station, a heating station, and a forming station with relatively movable mold parts, and providing a circuit for sheet carrying carriages which index individually clamped sheets from one station to another cyclically in a path of travel. The mechanism includes platens mounted on the machine frame at the heating station to move toward and away from the path of travel of the carriages and sheets. A heater carrrier for elongate electrical resistance heaters carries a contactor plate, and is rigidly mounted to each platen in a manner to permit universal thermal expansion of the carrier and plate with respect to the platen.