A blow molding apparatus is provided with a mold carriage movable in a path between an extruder station and a blow-and-fill station. The mold carriage can have one or more mold assemblies. Each mold assembly has opposed first and second mold halves that together define a mold cavity. The first mold half is fixed to the mold carriage while the second mold half is independently movable relative to the first mold half within the mold carriage to open and close the mold assembly.

A preform is sterilized by a preform sterilizer. The preform is blow-molded by a blow-molding device to manufacture a container. Next, the container is filled with a culture medium by a filling device without sterilizing the container by a container sterilizer, and the container is plugged by a plugging device. Thereafter, it is verified how much microorganism survive or propagate in the culture medium in the container. A degree of sterilization in the container sterilizer is adjusted on the basis of a verification result.

A method of sterilizing a bottle includes steps of: sterilizing bacteria adhering to a preform made of resin by gasifying a sterilizer, discharging a sterilized gas from a nozzle toward a preform, now traveling, so as to adhere to the preform; activating the sterilizer adhering to the preform by blasting hot air to the preform; sterilizing the bacteria adhering to the preform, and removing the sterilizer adhering to the preform; heating the preform to a temperature suitable for blow-molding treatment; and blow-molding the preform within a mold to mold the preform into a bottle, wherein the above steps are performed sequentially in order. According to the above-mentioned steps, the sterilizer does not enter a blow-molding machine.

A method and apparatus for forming, by means of expansion, plastic preforms into plastic containers in a hollow mold and for filling a substantially liquid product or at least a liquid or solid component of the product into the plastic containers in the hollow mold. The product is filled into the plastic containers while the respective plastic container has inserted therein, at least partially, a stretching rod or a filler neck, and the insertion depth of the stretching rod or of the filler neck is, at the end of the filling process, adjusted such that the volume displaced in the product by the stretching rod or the filler neck corresponds to a predetermined desired ullage.

A storage system for storing objects of plastic material processed in a bottling line (45) comprises: a plurality of drawers (4) configured to contain groups of objects (5); a frame (2) which defines a plurality of compartments (3) configured to house the drawers (4); a conveyor (8) movable in the storage system (1) itself and configured to access the compartments (3) in such a way as to withdraw and place drawers (4) from and into the compartments (4); a loading bay (11) having one or more loading compartments for receiving corresponding drawers (4) and having a loading manipulator (28) configured to place in the drawers (4) the loose objects (5) received from an infeed conveyor (29); an unloading bay (12) having at least one unloading compartment for receiving a corresponding drawer (4) and having an unloading manipulator (41) configured to place onto an outfeed conveyor (43, 44) the loose objects (5) stored in the drawer (4).

A liquid blow molding device and a liquid blow molding method are configured to supply pressurized liquid to a preform mounted to a mold to mold the preform into a shape along a cavity of the mold, and includes a blow nozzle fitted into a mouth portion of the preform, a plunger pump configured to supply pressurized liquid to the preform through the blow nozzle and a controller configured to control operation of the plunger pump. The controller controls operation of the plunger pump by position control in which a plunger of the plunger pump is moved from an original position to a predetermined final position with a predetermined operating force.

Even when the filling speed increases, the surface temperature of a molded bottle falls within a constant range, and a sterilizer adequately sterilizes the bottle. A preform is heated, the heated preform is sealed in a mold, the preform sealed in the mold is blow-molded into a bottle, the surface temperatures of a neck portion, a body portion, and a bottom portion of the molded bottle are measured, and the mold temperatures of a neck portion, a body portion, and a bottom portion of the mold is so adjusted that the measured surface temperature of the bottle falls within a specified temperature range.

A method of controlling a temperature of a biopharmaceutical product during blow-fill sealing, includes developing a model based on heat transfer mechanisms that incorporates the effects of the blow-fill sealing on the biopharmaceutical product, providing a parison to a blow-fill sealing machine for accepting the biopharmaceutical product during the blow-fill sealing, predicting a temperature of at least one the biopharmaceutical product, the parison, and a component of the blow-fill sealing machine at a stage in the blow-fill sealing, and adjusting a parameter of the blow-fill sealing machine to reduce damage to the biopharmaceutical product.

A stretch blow moulding, filling and capping system for containers with integral handles; the containers blown from injection moulded preforms; each preform having the integral handle projecting from a junction point on a body portion of the preform; containers blown in a continuously rotating stretch blow moulding machine of the system transferred automatically to a continuous container filling and capping machine. In a preferred form the preforms are progressed continuously at a substantially constant speed; the containers blown therefrom progress at the same substantially constant speed through to the filling and capping machine; and wherein the containers progress continuously through the filling and capping machine at the same substantially constant speed. Also described is a continuous stretch blow moulding system applied to specified integral handle PET preform and PET blown container structures stretch blown from the preforms.

A continuous cycle bottling line for containers of thermoplastic material comprises: a parison molding unit; a blow-molding unit for making containers; a unit for filling the containers; a thermal conditioning structure for the parisons, for heating and cooling the parisons in a heating module and in a cooling module, respectively; an automatic controlled-atmosphere storage system for containing the parisons and interconnected with the other parts of the line; a pressurization system configured to pressurize at least the following parts of the line: the storage system, the at least one blow-molding unit and the connections between the thermal conditioning structure and the storage system; where the heating and cooling modules, alternatively or in combination, i) are pressurized, ii) have a plurality of shutters configured to occlude the opening at the end of each parison, so that the interior of the parison remains closed when the parison is inside the heating and cooling module.