Patent ID: 7972130

Claim:
An injection blow molding machine having a turret with at least three planar faces, each of the planar faces carrying at least one hollow core rod, the turret being rotatable by an indexing motion to present each face, successively, at a plurality of stations to form, at one of said stations, a preform of an article on said at least one core rod at said one of said stations, and then to form, at a successive one of said stations, a blown article from said preform on said at least one core rod, and apparatus for cooling said at least one core rod at said one of said stations, said apparatus comprising: a source of compressed air; means for conditioning compressed air from said source; means for circulating conditioned compressed air from said means for conditioning compressed air through said at least one core rod at said one of said stations; means for blocking circulation of compressed air from said means for conditioning compressed air through said at least one core rod at the successive one of said stations; said means for circulating compressed air comprising means for exhausting compressed air from said at least one core rod at said one of said stations, and means for compressing compressed air exhausted from said at least one core rod and returning said compressed air exhausted from said at least one core rod to said means for circulating compressed air for conditioning by said means for conditioning to return said compressed air exhausted from said at least one core rod to said at least one core rod, wherein said means for blocking circulation of compressed air blocks the circulation of compressed air by blocking the exhaust of spent conditioned air from the successive one of said stations.