High speed blow moulding machine particularly for

A blow moulding machine of high output comparable with the throughput of filling, capping and labelling machines, e.g. 20,000 per hour in which the high speed of operation compared with that of known blow moulding machines, e.g. 3,000-4,000 per hour, is achieved by the use of a rotary mould table around which are spaced a series of blow moulds each designed to produce two or more bottles, and in which the mould parting plane is vertical and directed along a radius of the rotary table. One half of each mould assembly is fixed to the table while the other half can be moved away from the fixed half by a pivoted arm. The moveable mould half represents the leading half with reference to the direction of rotation of the table. A vertical extruder system with at least two separate screw extruders of identical dimensions extrudes plastic tube continuously. The tube is pinched off by the closure of the mould assemblies as it passes through the extrusion station. Blow mandrels arranged below the rotary table for each mould assembly enable the bottles to be blow moulded and their necks calibrated, as the table rotates, the moulds opening and the bottles being ejected just before the extrusion station.