Patent ID: 6848899

Claim:
An injection stretch blow molding apparatus, comprising: a preform molding station for injection molding preforms; a blow molding station for stretch blow molding the preforms into containers, and; a transfer station for transferring the preforms from the preform molding station to the blow molding station, wherein the preform molding station comprises an injection molding section for simultaneously injection molding a first number N of the preforms at a first pitch, wherein N is greater than or equal to two, wherein the blow molding station comprises: a circulatory carrier for intermittently circulatorily carrying the preforms along a carrying path at a second pitch larger than the first pitch, the preforms being transferred from the preform molding station through the transfer station; a heating section for heating the preforms being transferred along the carrying path; and a blow molding section for simultaneously blow molding n of the containers from a second number n of the preforms, wherein n is greater than or equal to one and less than N, and wherein the transfer station comprises: a receiving mechanism for simultaneously receiving the N preforms from the preform molding station with the N preforms at the first pitch, a preform handling mechanism to move the preforms from the receiving mechanism to an intermediate location, and a pitch changing and transfer mechanism for changing an array pitch of the preforms from the first pitch to the second pitch and also transferring n of the preforms from the intermediate location to the circulatory carrier in the blow molding station.