Patent ID: 7425294

Claim:
A method of producing plastic articles, comprising: placing a metal mold at a first station to preheat said mold using infrared energy, said mold being contoured and having a back surface and a front surface wherein said infrared energy is directed at said back surface of said mold from a plurality of tubular electric infrared heating elements in a parallel array wherein each element is bent in a pattern to conform to and is spaced from said contoured back surface and wherein said mold does not rotate relative to said heating element array; moving said mold to a second station and casting plastic material onto said preheated metal mold front surface; moving said mold to another location and fusing said plastic into a substantially uniform layer using infrared energy wherein said infrared energy consists of infrared energy that is directed at said back surface of said mold by a parallel away of tubular electric infrared heating elements; moving said mold to a third station and cooling said metal mold using evaporative cooling; removing the cast plastic article from said metal mold; wherein said array comprising said plurality of conforming tubular electric infrared energy heating elements is spaced about 1-3 inches from the back surface of said mold and said tubes are further spaced about 1-3 inches apart running along the back surface of said mold to provide relatively uniform coverage of said back surface of said mold.