Patent attributes
A scrapless thermoforming machine includes a plurality of transport trays having frames configured to hold thermoplastic billets and billet clamps. An oven is configured to heat the billets and a forming press is configured to form the billets into containers. A loading and unloading station has a billet loading side and a container unloading side. The loading and unloading station includes a clamp transfer station having a clamp transfer shuttle configured to move the clamps from the container unloading side to the billet loading side and a transport tray unloading mechanism on the container unloading side configured to unload the clamps and formed containers from a selected transport tray to the clamp transfer station. The loading and unloading station further includes a billet placement station on the billet loading side configured to place the thermoplastic billets onto billet shuttle, the billet shuttle configured to move the billets from the billet placement station to the billet loading side of the clamp transfer station and a transport tray loading mechanism configured to transfer the clamps and the billets from the clamp loading station to the selected transport tray on the billet loading side.
