An ejector blade for ejecting parts from injection molds. The ejector blade has an elongate shank portion with a slotted end therein, a flat blade portion having an end shaped to be engaged within the slot, and apertures through the engaged ends in registration with one another with a pin engaged in the apertures to join the shank and blade portions releasably so that different blade portions can be mounted on the shank portion. The pin is a slotted roll pin and the aperture in the shank portion is larger in diameter than the aperture in the blade portion in order to permit some movement between the blade and shank portions to accommodate variations in a mold in which the ejector blade is used.

A method of controlled ejection of a molded product in relation to orientation, speed of ejection and/or sterility is disclosed. The method is not dependent on auxiliary moving parts or vulnerable pins or blades. The molded product is ejected into a substantially enclosed guide conduit where the contours of the conduit substantially are regions of the parting surface and the cavity/ies. The guide conduit may be fairly holeproof, whereby a very fast ejection may be accomplished when the molded product is transported in an air stream in a manner similar to a pneumatic dispatch, not necessarily in a downward direction. The molded product may be kept sterile while it is transported in a stream of sterile air.

Article unloading apparatus is disclosed for use with a molding machine, the molding machine comprising first and second mold members reciprocally movable relative to one another between mold-open and mold-closed positions. The article unloading apparatus comprises a pair of guide rails movable apart to a retracted position and toward one another to an article receiving position. The pair of guide rails and the mold members are coupled together such that movement of the mold members to the mold-closed position, for molding an article, causes the guide rails to move to their retracted position in which they do not interfere with the molding operation. Movement of the mold members to the mold-open position, for unloading the molded article, causes the guide rails to move toward one another and between the mold members to their article receiving position. In the article receiving position, the guide rails are spaced from but in register with an article molded by the mold members. An ejecting mechanism ejects the article to the guide rails which guide the article away from the molding machine.

A mold with two relatively movable portions, one of them having one or more shallow cavities for the production of substantially flat articles, is provided with lateral guide elements which, upon separation of the two mold portions by a distance exceeding but slightly the depth of these cavities, define with the separated mold portions a vertical channel through which the ejected articles descend with a predetermined orientation onto an underlying conveyor or other receiver therefore. The guide elements may be retractable into the mold portion on which they are supported, or partly receivable in the opposite mold portion when the mold is closed. Some of the guide elements could be extensions of ejectors serving to dislodge a molded article from its cavity.

In a multi-cavity molding apparatus that includes a cavity part having a plurality of cavity sections that is combined with a core part having a plurality of cores to define a plurality of mold cavities therebetween, and a plurality of locking rings respectively disposed around a plurality of the cores for engagement with respective cavity sections when the core part is combined with the cavity part, a cavity shield is attached to the cavity part to prevent molded products ejected from the mold cavities from entering spaces between the cavity sections of the cavity part and a core shield is attached to the core part to help prevent the ejected products from entering spaces between the cores of the core part. The cavity shield and the core shield thereby respectively limit obstruction by the cavity part and the core part of removal of the ejected products from the space between the cavity past and the core part. The core shield includes more than the ejection means.