A plastic molding system comprises: dispensing, pre-shaping and shaping cells and a transport subsystem. The dispensing cell has a station for dispensing a dose of plastic feedstock. The pre-shaping and shaping cells each comprise a plurality of stations for shaping the workpiece into a preform shape and into a final shape, respectively. The transport subsystem advances a workpiece along a selected one of a plurality of process paths to form a molded article. Each of the plurality of process paths is defined by a combination of stations of the dispensing cell, the pre-shaping cell and the shaping cell.

A molding device suitable for performing at least one of injection molding of preforms and blow molding of the preforms includes a pitch changing device including: N holding units capable of holding the preforms and arranged at a predetermined pitch in a predetermined direction, N being inter equal to or larger than 2; a coupling unit coupling the holding units adjacent to each other such that the pitch is changeable; a drive unit configured to generate a predetermined drive force; and a drive force transmission unit configured to transmit the drive force to each of one end-side and the other end-side, in the predetermined direction, of the coupled N holding units. The one end-side and the other end-side are configured to be moved in the predetermined direction by the drive force to change the pitch.

A preform conveying device (100) of the invention includes a control unit that detects an arriving time at which a conveyor jig arrives at a reference position based on an output of a first encoder, and commands a second motor to move a conveyor arm to a target position at regular intervals from the arriving time. The target position in each command is a position obtained by adding, to a current position of the conveyor jig which is obtained based on a latest output of the first encoder which was obtained when the command has been issued, a moving distance by which the conveyor jig has advanced during a delay time T which spans from a time when the latest output is outputted from the first encoder to a time when the command is received by the second motor.

The invention relates to a device for transporting a hollow body provided with a neck, for a hollow body made of a thermoplastic material. The device comprises at least one mounting translatably mobile along a predetermined path, at least one shaft rotatably mounted in the mounting mobile about a predetermined axis, and a member for gripping the hollow body by a neck which is supported by the rotary shaft. The transport device further comprises means for angular indexing of the rotary shaft in a single predetermined indexed angular position in relation to the mounting.

An apparatus for heating plastic preforms with a transport device which includes holding devices for holding the plastic preforms and wherein the transport path has at least one heating portion inside which the plastic preforms are heated, and with a heating device arranged stationary at least in portions along the transport path and which heats the plastic preforms transported by the transport device during their transport through the heating portion, wherein the heating device has at least one in particular stationary applicator device which is configured for bombarding the plastic preforms with microwaves to heat them. In the heating portion, the transport device is arranged relative to the applicator device such that at least parts of the holding devices are arranged outside the applicator device, wherein the applicator device is configured to receive several plastic preforms simultaneously for at least some of the time.

A device for removing plastic products (1) having at least one guiding and/or holding device (7), which, in the context of a plastic forming process is introduced into and removed from a plastic product (1), to take over and subsequently release the latter after forming for at least one further production step, wherein a motion device (40) serves for inserting and removing the respective device (7) into and from the plastic product (1), wherein said motion device (40) moves the respective device (7) axially in opposing directions of travel, is characterized in that at least one further motion device (35) is provided, which sets the guiding and/or holding device (7) in rotational movement.

The invention relates to a conveyor system for conveying preforms in a device for blow-forming finished containers, wherein the conveyor system comprises a conveyor chain, the chain links of which comprise a carrying element and a conveyor element, the conveyor system being characterized in that the conveyor element comprises a support structure and the carrying element comprises a mounting structure and at least some sections of the support structure and the mounting structure are designed and arranged to complement one another. Both the support structure of the conveyor element and the mounting structure of the carrying element comprise at least one connecting element, at least some sections of each connecting element being configured and arranged to complement one another, and the conveyor system is further configured to handoff the preforms to carrying elements for conveying said preforms through a heating section and to remove the preforms from the carrying elements after said preforms have been conveyed through the heating section. In addition, the invention also relates to a device for blow-forming finished containers from preforms, in particular from preforms made of a thermoplastic material, the device comprising at least one heating system for thermally conditioning the preforms along a transport path and at least one forming device for forming thermally conditioned preforms into the finished container, characterized in that the device comprises at least one conveyor system for conveying preforms according to the invention, the conveyor system being disposed in particular in the area of the heating device. Lastly, the invention also relates to the use of such a conveyor system and a method for the replacement of at least one carrying element.

The invention relates to a heating device (H) comprising a heating section (24) for thermally conditioning preforms (1) consisting of thermoplastic material, comprising an upper orifice portion (21) having an opening, a collar-like support ring (54) arranged below the orifice portion (21), and a bottom portion (56) closed at the lower end, to a temperature profile suitable for blowmolding, wherein the heating device (H) has transportation means (33) for the transportation of the preforms (1) along a transportation path (55) of the heating device (H), and wherein the transportation means (33) each bear at least one handling means (41) for holding and handling the preforms (1), wherein a radiation screen (52), which follows the transportation path of the preforms (1), and which has a recess (53) at least on one end face to partially enclose a preform (1) held in the handling means (41) adjoining the recess (53), is provided in an intermediate space between two handling means (41) each provided for handling a preform (1), wherein the radiation screen (52) is arranged such that a surface region of the radiation screen (52), viewed in the longitudinal direction of the preform (1), at least temporarily overlaps on its side facing away with the orifice portion (21) with a surface region of the support ring (54) during the transportation of the preforms (1).

Provided is a method for heating plastic preforms, wherein the plastic parison are transported along a predetermined transport path and are heated during this transport, wherein at least one first heating section with at least one first heating element as well as at least one second heating section with at least one second heating element is arranged along the transport path, by a first temperature measuring device an actual temperature of the plastic preforms is measured in or before a start region of the transport path, and as a function of this actual temperature of the plastic preforms the at least one first heating element is controlled in such a way that the plastic preforms reach a predetermined target temperature after heating by this at least one first heating element.

Provided is a device for treating containers and in particular plastic containers, including a first transport device having a continuous carrier on which a first plurality of transport elements are moveably arranged, each having at least one retainer for retaining plastic preforms and being designed and configured to transport said plastic preforms along a first transport path, and including at least one heating device arranged along the first transport path in order to heat the plastic preforms at least in sections during their transportation along the first transport path.