Patent ID: 7407618

Claim:
A molded article work piece application method, comprising the steps of: driving a shuttle plate only in one or more coplanar linear directions; applying a work piece to at least one of (i) a molded article resident in at least one of a mold core and a mold cavity, and (ii) at least one of the mold core and the mold cavity, with a work piece application device coupled to the shuffle plate; removing the molded article from at least one of the mold cavity and the mold core; and driving the shuttle plate only in one or more coplanar linear directions to move the work piece application device and the molded article to a work piece and molded article pick up location; wherein said work piece application device comprises a label application device, and wherein said applying step comprises the step of applying a label to an inside surface of the mold cavity; said label application device includes a label suction member and an article suction member, and wherein said applying step comprises the step of applying the label with the label suction member; and the first driving step drives the shuttle plate in a first direction to (i) move the article suction member to a position adjacent a just-molded article on the mold core, and (ii) move the label suction member, which is holding the label, to a position adjacent the mold cavity, and wherein after the article has been stripped from the mold core, the second driving step drives the shuttle plate a second direction to (iii) move the article suction member to a position to eject the just-molded article from the mold, and (iv) move the label suction member to a position adjacent the work piece pick up location.