Container fabricating machine

DETAILED DESCRIPTION As can be ascertained from the foregoing discussion, each of the known types of insulated plastic material containers referred to has certain advantages which make it well suited for some uses, and certain limitations which make it less well suited than one of the other types for other uses.
The apparatus, according to the present invention, is well suited for the fabrication of a one-piece container such as a cup.
The container can be of tapered sidewall configuration, or the container can have a sidewall that is substantially cylindrical in configuration.
The present invention comprises a framework that supports a motor driven drum adapted for stopping at predetermined arcuate intervals as it revolves about a central axis of revolution.
The drum supports an array of radially oriented shrink mandrels.
Seamed sleeves of oriented plastic material are positioned in telescoped fashion over the mandrels.
A portion of the sleeve is permitted to protrude beyond the free end of the mandrel.
The mandrel and its accompanying sleeve is translated through an arcuate path that subjects the sleeve to selected treatment of heat from adjacently mounted heat elements, thus causing the oriented sleeve to shrink in a controlled manner to a configuration similar to the mandrel exterior.
That portion of the sleeve cantilevered beyond the end of the mandrel shrinks into a small diameter tubular structure that is closed by the compressive action of a bottom pinching mechanism.
Subsequent to the closing of the bottom of the heat softened sleeve, the mandrel carrying the sleeve is moved to a work station where the pinched bottom material is compressed against the end of the mandrel to form a liquid-tight bottom in the sleeve.
The force utilized in forming the container bottom is also used to form an upset rim on the container.
The mandrel carrying the completed container is then indexed to an eject station where the finished container is removed from the mandrel on which it was formed.