US3015847A - Candle mold - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 9, 1962 L. T. HOLDEN ET AL 3,015,847

CANDLE MOLD Filed Nov. 5, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 H 5 LA wmsA/c i wfif/v BY HARE) fins/(Ely WYM Ad-Loaf W Jan. 9, 1962 T. HOLDEN ET AL CANDLE MOLD 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 5, 1957 INVENTORS lflMPf/Vfg' 7.7/01. DEN I BY HARRY R. ASKEW wfivw h Mow aw 3,015,847 CANDLE MOLD Lawrence T. Holden and Harry R. Askew, Chatham,

N.J., assignors to Chatham Candle Corporation, Chatham, N.J., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Nov. 5, 1957, Ser. No. 710,595 2 Claims. (Cl. 18-27) (Filed under Rule 47(a) and 35 U.S.C. 116) The present invention relates to new and useful molds for making candles. The new molds are especially useful in the manufacture of votive candles.

Objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part hereinafter and in part will be obvious herefrom, or may be learned by practice with the invention, the same being realized and attained by means of the parts and combinations pointed out in the appended claims.

The invention consists in the novel parts, combinations and improvements herein shown and described.

The accompanying drawings, referred to herein and constituting a part hereof, illustrate one embodiment of the invention and also show an article of the invention, and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

Of the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of a preferred and illustrative mold according to the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a top plan view of the mold shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 33 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURES 4, 5, 6 and 7 are other vertical sectional views showing the mold in several stages of the process;

FIGURE 8 is an exploded side elevation of the mold and showing the several parts as they may be separated in the process;

FIGURE 9 is a perspective view showing a typical and illustrative candle as produced by the process of the present invention; and

FIGURE 10 is a bottom plan view of a candle as produced by the present invention.

Votive candles have customarily been producedby casting the wax in a mold having piston-like bottom members, the mold having a wick hole pin supported in it, and by filling the mold above its top. The excess was then scraped off to a level with the top of the mold, and the mold bottom was then pushed up to expel the candle. The wick was then inserted in the wick hole, and the non-burning end of the wick was locked in place by tamping in a metal locking disc.

The molds of the present invention enable large-scale, economical production of candles. These new and improved molds produce candles without using an excess quantity of wax, and at a faster rate than is possible with the conventional molds. A primary object of this invention is the provision of an improved mold, preferably adapted to the casting of a single candle and which can be rapidly filled, chilled, actuated for expulsion of the molded candle, reassembled and again serve for the formation of another candle, and which can preferably be used in large quantities in suitable equipment for mechanically handling the separate molds.

In general, the molds of the present invention comprise a plurality of interfitting parts which are assembled prior to the casting operation and may be separated, the parts being formed of relatively thick metal having a high heat capacity, such as aluminum, and adapted to be fitted together to form a liquid-tight, opentop cavity which can be filled with wax and then immersed in a cooling liquid, after which the parts are separated from each other in a predetermined order to United States Patent 'ice release the molded candle body. Thereafter they are reassembled for the formation of another candle.

Referring now in detail to the present preferred form of the molds of the present invention, each of the mold units preferably comprises a relatively large diameter circular base member 10 which has a substantially flat bottom 12 which is provided with central cylindrical, chamfered aperture 14. On its upper face, the base member 10 is provided with a generally cylindrical aperture 16, coaxial with the aperture 14, and with a lower annular face 18 which forms a supporting ledge for a circular member 20 which carries wick-hole forming pin 22, which extends vertically upwardly from the member 20 and is firmly attached thereto. The circular member 20 is formed with a downwardly extending cylindrical portion which fits loosely into the circular aperture 14 to locate the member 20 and the pin 22 with respect to the base member 10.

On the upper face of the member 20, and located by the pin 22, which is preferably round and snugly fitted thereto is a fiat disc-like member 24 forming the bottom portion of the mold and having in its upper face a shallow mold cavity 26 of the desired shape. The disclike bottom mold member 24 is easily slid onto and removed from the pin 22, and is preferably provided with a smooth accurately finished upper edge so that it may closely seat against another mold member which is to form the cylindrical side wall of the mold.

The remainder of the mold comprises a vertically extending member 28 having a hollow cylindrical interior 30, with a larger cylindrical bottom 32 which is only slightly smaller than the internal diameter of the aperture 16, and is provided with a shallow cylindrical interior slightly larger than the exterior of the disc 24, and is also finished flat at 36 so that it may seat accurately with the upper edge of disc 24 to form a substantially liquid tight seal between the mold parts 24 and 30, thereby retaining the wax within the mold interior and later excluding water from the mold cavity.

The exterior of the member 28 is preferably somewhat conical, tapering towards its upper end, and is also provided with vertically extending fins 38 which increase the heat transfer surface of the mold member, thereby increasing the rate at which the molten wax within the mold may be cooled. These fins 38 may each be provided with a slot 40 towards their upper end, so that the members 28 may be mechanically gripped when his desired to lift the members 28 from the molded wax, while the mold bottom 10 remains on a flat surface and holds the molded candle body in an upright position.

All of the mold members are formed of metal, and preferably of aluminum so that they are relatively light in weight and yet have a high heat capacity and conductivity, thereby increasing the rate at which the wax may be cooled. The amount of metal in the parts 24 and 28 is at least as great as is necessary to cause the wax to congeal considering the initial temperatures of the wax and mold and the congealing temperature of the wax.

The mold members 10, 20, 24 and 28 are thus all adapted to be easily separated from each other, and are coaxially or concentrically located so that they assume a uniform position, and the several parts are replaceable by similar members from other mold units. In their assembled form the mold provides a generally cylindrical cavity having a shallow separable, bottom mold member which forms the upper surface of the candle, and a wick-hole located centrally of the candle.

The manner of using the molds of the present invention will be described in connection with a description of the preferred process of the present invention, according to which the several parts 10, 20, 24 and 28 of a single mold unit are assembled into the relative positions shown in FIGURE 3 of the accompanying drawings, and the fiat base 12 of the bottom member is positioned on a flat surface, or the mold may be supported on a conveyor pin which is adapted to fit into the cylindrical cavity at the bottom of the member 20.

In this position, and in case it is desired to make a candle having a design of one color at the top fixed to a differently colored wax forming the principal portion of the candle body, a small amount of molten, colored wax 42 is poured into the mold until the lowermost portion of the cavity 26 is substantially filled, after which, as shown in FIGURE 4, the main mold cavity is filled with molten wax 44 of a different color. The mold may be completely filled, or only partially filled, depending upon the desired height of the candle body. At the time the filling of the mold is begun, the mold members are preferably at room temperature, and as the wax is poured into the mold, it immediately begins to congeal due to the relatively high heat capacity of the aluminum from which the mold members are made.

After the mold has been filled to the desired extent, the body of the wax shrinks due to the cooling effected by the mass of mold members 24 and 28, thus leaving a slight cavity 48 in the upper end of the candle body in molding position, as shown in FIGURE 5, and a small additional quantity of wax 50 is poured into the mold so as to fill the depression at the upper end of the wax body, while the wax is still slightly warm and has only partially congealed, thereby enabling the added wax to bond to the main candle body.

The mold may be then transferred to a bath of relatively cold water, as shown in FIGURE 6, the level of the water being only slightly below the top rim of the mold member 28, and the mold members 10, 20, 24 and 28 are quickly cooled by the water, due to the rapid rate at which heat is transferred from the mold to the water. This cooling action of the water on the mold is usually faster than heat can be transferred from the molten or cooling wax to the mold, but the high heat capacity of the mold continues to be an advantage, as the metal has cooled sufficiently so that when the temperature of the mold and wax has been fully equalized, the wax is fully congealed.

After the wax has fully congealed, and while the mold parts are still assembled, small plate of thin sheet metal 54 having a central slotted aperture 56 and bent over corners 58 to form prongs is positioned over the pin and pressed downwardly so that the prongs are embedded in the wax candle body, as shown in FIGURE 7.

Thereafter, the mold member 28 is withdrawn by being moved upwardly from the other mold parts and from the main congealed candle body, and later the bottom 4 mold member 24 with the candle body supported there are moved upwardly with respect to the pin 22 and the supporting disc 20, thereby freeing the candle body from the pin 22. Afterwards, the finished candle body with the bottom mold member 24 receive a length of wickng which is threaded through the hole formerly occupied by the pin 22, and the Wicking is secured in place by crimping down the slotted portions 56' of the sheet metal 54 so that the wick is gripped and held in place. The finisehd candle may then be removed from the bottom mold member 24, after which the several mold members are reassembled into the position shown in FIGURE 3 and are ready for reuse in molding another candle body.

The invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific steps, processes and combinations shown and described but departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the accompanying claims without departing from the principles of the invention and without sacrificing its chief advantages.

What is claimed is:

1. A candle casting mold comprising: a base member, a pin supporting member having a wick-hole forming pin fixed thereto supported by said base member, a bottom mold portion having an aperture therein through which said pin removably extends, a hollow mold member mounted on said bottom mold portion, said hollow mold member, said bottom mold portion and said pin supporting member being removable from each other and from said base.

2. A candle casting mold comprising: a base member, a hollow mold .member open at both ends, a bottom mold portion engageable with said hollow mold member to close off one end of said hollow mold member, a wick-hole forming pin fixedly attached to a pin supporting member and extending through said bottom mold portion and into the mold cavity, said hollow mold member, said bottom mold portion and said pin supporting member being removably supported by said base member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Deckert Sept. 13, 1938

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