Patent ID: 8543434

Claim:
A method of manufacturing, comprising: identifying a customer's production requirements at the customer's production facility; designing a manufacturing cell based upon the identified production requirements; delivering components for the manufacturing cell to a location at or near the customer's production facility; assembling the components to form the manufacturing cell at the location, wherein the manufacturing cell comprises: a modular preform mold system comprising: a plurality of preform core side modules having a plurality of preform mold cores, a core side clamp plate connectable to a moving platen of an injection mold machine and operable to receive the plurality of preform core modules, individually or simultaneously, a plurality of preform cavity side modules having a plurality of preform mold cavities disposed therein, each one of the plurality of preform cavity side modules corresponding to and operable to engage a respective one of the plurality of core side modules to form a plurality of preform molds having a respective preform design wherein the plurality of preform molds are of one or more unique preform designs, and wherein the number of cavity side modules and corresponding core side modules is adjustable, a plurality of ejector housing assemblies for connecting the plurality of core side modules to an ejector platen of the injection mold machine, each one of the plurality of ejector housing assemblies corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of core side modules, a manifold and valve gate assembly connectable to a stationary platen of an injection mold machine and operable to receive the plurality of preform cavity modules and place the plurality of preform mold cavities in fluid communication with an injector of the injection mold machine, wherein the manifold and valve gate assembly is operable to uniformly control the injection of fluidized plastic into each of the plurality of preform molds in fluid communication with the manifold and valve gate assembly whereby a plurality of unique preform designs may be formed simultaneously while using a single injection mold machine, and training operational personnel to operate the manufacturing cell.