Apparatus for making a container of plastic material

Claim 1

Apparatus for manufacturing a container of plastic material having three handles also made of plastic material comprising a blow-moulding head which extrudes a hot tube of plastic material, blow-moulding sections to the side of said tube, open-edged recesses which are not undercut in the direction of the dividing plane of the blow-moulding sections produced in the lower inner marginal section of each blow-moulding section, a separately moulded outer handle and a handle plate being insertable into each of said recesses at a temperature at which the inner face of the plate is permanently welded to the hot extrudate, the outer face of the plate following the outer face of the container, the plate extending from one end of the outer handle to the other and also extending a little further along the side wall and the upper side of the container, the material of the tube being identical to that of the plates at least with regard to the welding properties at blow-moulding temperatures, the bottom of each of the blow-moulding sections being provided with half of a recess for a container outlet and for the central handle, below the blow-moulding sections there are provided two sliding devices which are substantially symmetrical with the dividing plane and can be jointly operated subject to the closing of the blowmoulding sections and the blow-moulding time, each of said sliding devices comprising a sliding plate of which the upper sections are directed towards one another and each comprises a first recess to form the central handle and an upper second recess for squeezing off and receiving the surplus extrudate between the central handle and the upper side of the container, the upper faces of the sliding plates being movable towards one another between the outer handles and the tube being flattened as far as the upper side of the container by the closing operation when the blow-moulding operation commences, the sliding pLates being lockable in this position.