A hot runner system having a nozzle and a manifold seated against the nozzle. An actuator plate is spaced apart from the manifold by a support pad which surrounds a lower mouth of an actuator bore that extends through the actuator plate. A valve pin extends through the support pad and the manifold to a downstream end of the nozzle. A cylinder is received in the actuator bore from a rearward side of the actuator plate and a piston coupled to the valve pin is received in the cylinder from a forward end of the cylinder.

A hot runner system having a nozzle and a manifold seated against the nozzle. An actuator plate is spaced apart from the manifold by a support pad which surrounds a lower mouth of an actuator bore that extends through the actuator plate. A valve pin extends through the support pad and the manifold to a downstream end of the nozzle. A cylinder is received in the actuator bore from a rearward side of the actuator plate and a piston coupled to the valve pin is received in the cylinder from a forward end of the cylinder.

Hot-runner manifolds that contain one or more types of non-melt channels in addition to melt channels, and injection-molding systems containing such hot-runner manifolds. The differing types of non-melt channels include: coolant channels for carrying a coolant for cooling the tips of hot-tip nozzles, for example, during hot latching operations; heating-fluid channels for carrying a heating fluid for heating melt within melt channels within the hot-runner manifolds; and actuation-fluid channels for carrying actuation fluid to valves of valve-actuated nozzles. In each case, nozzles can be formed unitarily monolithically with the hot-runner manifolds and one or more of the various types of non-melt channels can be continuously routed within such unitary monolithic nozzles. Freeform fabrication processes can be used to form hot-runner manifolds of the present disclosure, which often contain complex/intricate internal passageways that form the various types of melt and non-melt channels.

An apparatus for controlling the rate of flow of fluid mold material from an injection molding machine to a mold cavity, the apparatus comprising: a manifold having a delivery channel that delivers fluid material to a first gate; an actuator interconnected to a valve pin having a tip end drivable along a drive path, the actuator and the valve pin being translationally driven at a controllable rate of travel by a valve system comprised of a source of valve drive fluid that pumps the drive fluid at a maximum drive rate, a first valve interconnected to the source that is selectively adjustable to adjust rate of flow of the drive fluid from the source to a selected less than maximum drive rate and a second valve controllably movable between a first position and a second position.