A mold opening and closing mechanism for a section of an I.S. machine includes a mold carrier assembly and horizontal axially extending shafts. A housing supports these shafts for axial displacement and includes first and second vertically extending ducts which terminate at their tops with a sleeve. A manifold assembly includes a manifold including a plenum which overlies each of the mold halves. A spacer secured beneath said frame and having vertically extending holes communicates with the downwardly opening exit of the plenum for delivering cooling air from the plenum to the vertical cooling air passages of the mold halves. The manifold includes a pair of horizontally extending cylindrical inlet holes A pair of cylindrical tubes are received by the cylindrical holes and first and second elbows connect a second end of each of the cylindrical tubes to the sleeves so that cooling air from the ducts will be delivered to the pair of tubes. Each of the pair of cylindrical tubes has a length selected so that the tubes will be received by the cylindrical holes as the carrier/insert means is displaced between the retracted and advanced positions. Secured intermediate the manifold and the mold carrier is a device which can separate and maintain separated the manifold and the mold carrier so that the blank molds can be removed from the mold carrier.
This is a continuation-in-part application of Ser. No. 09/260,114, which was filed on Mar. 2, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,063, which is incorporated by reference herein.
