A mold comprising at least two mold portions, at least one of which includes a vent opening out to the inside of the cavity and to the outside of the mold and presenting a flow section that is predetermined to enable air to be exhausted when the mold is closed. Said mold portion comprises at least two parts that extend over an entire dimension of the mold cavity and that are assembled together, the parts being held apart from each other by at least one spacer so as to define between them a gap that opens out to the inside of the cavity and to the outside of the mold in order to form the vent. A blow-molding machine including such a mold.

A method of thermal imaging a preform for a blow molding operation is provided. The method involves heating a preform and measuring its temperature along is longitudinal axis and around its circumference and converting the temperature measurements into a two-dimensional thermal image.

A closed-loop method of heating a preform for a blow molding operation is provided. The method involves inspecting a preform upon entry into a system, heating the preform, measuring a preform temperature along its longitudinal axis and around its circumference, heating the preform again, measuring a preform temperature again along its longitudinal axis and around its circumference, comparing the second temperature measurement to a known, acceptable temperature measurement, and optimizing the heating step(s) to ensure subsequent optimization of the heating of subsequent preforms.

A resin container manufacturing device includes: an injection molding part configured to injection-mold a first number of bottomed resin preforms by using an injection molding mold including an injection core mold and an injection cavity mold; a temperature adjustment part including a housing member configured to receive and perform temperature adjustment on the preforms demolded from the injection core mold in a high-temperature state; and a blow molding part configured to receive the preforms from the temperature adjustment part and blow-mold the preforms into resin containers. The injection core mold is configured to reciprocate between an injection molding position and a demolding position of the preforms. The temperature adjustment part is configured to perform the temperature adjustment by dividing the preforms housed in the housing member into a third number of groups each including a second number of preforms smaller than the first number.

A container processing system, the container processing system comprising a production machine for producing preforms, in particular an injection molding machine, a heating device for heating preforms, a blow molding machine for molding preforms into containers, a first transport device for transporting preforms along a first transport direction to the heating device and a second transport device for transporting heated preforms from the heating device to the blow molding machine, wherein the container processing system occupies a fictitious base area in the shape of a rectangle and the production machine, the heating device and the blow molding machine each occupy a fictitious component base area in the shape of a rectangle, wherein a longest side of the base area has a length that is smaller than the sum of the longest sides of the component base areas and the length of the first and the second transport device.

The invention relates to a control circuit (1) for an apparatus comprising a heating device for preforms, a blow molding machine for producing containers from preheated preforms, a first measuring device (15) for determining an actual temperature of the heated preforms and a second measuring device (9) for determining an actual light transmission of the containers, wherein the control circuit for controlling the light transmission of containers comprises: A higher-level control circuit having a first comparator (4) for determining a first control difference (5) from a target light transmission (2) and an actual light transmission (3) and having a first controller (6) which, based on the first control difference as a first input variable for a system (16), outputs a first adaptation (7) of a process parameter of a station of the blow molding machine as a first output variable and controls the process parameter of the station of the blow molding machine in accordance with the first adaptation. The first controller also outputs a target temperature (8) of the heated preform as a second output variable, based on the first control difference as an input variable. A subordinate control circuit having a second comparator (11) for determining a second control difference (12) from the target temperature and the actual temperature and having a second controller (13) which, based on the second control difference as a second input variable for a system (16), outputs a second adaptation (14) of a heating behavior of the heating device as a third output variable and controls the heating behavior of the furnace in accordance with the second adaptation (14).

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 device for heating thermoplastic preforms, including a heating channel formed from a heating module and through which the regions of the preforms to be heated are guided by a conveyor device. Radiant heaters are arranged on a side wall of the heating channel. In the region of a side that lies opposite the radiant heaters and/or the base of the heating channel, reflector elements which act as counter or base reflectors are arranged. The reflector has a reflection layer and a carrier layer. The reflection layer includes a material with a silicon dioxide base and an IR reflection value greater than 90% in the range of 500 to 2500 nm. The carrier layer is a material with greater mechanical strength than the reflection layer and is used as a carrier for the reflection layer. Both layers have a similar coefficient of thermal expansion and are permanently interconnected.

Unit (1) for heating hollow body preforms (2) made of plastic, which includes a cavity (8) through which the preforms (2) file past and includes: an emitter device (12) equipped with at least one radiant source (13) of electromagnetic radiation pointing toward the cavity (8); a structure (7) delimiting the cavity (8) and including a set of components (9, 10, 11) forming the boundaries thereof, each boundary component (9, 10, 11) being provided with an internal face (14, 15, 16, 17), facing towards the cavity (8) and capable of absorbing the electromagnetic radiation emanating from the emitter device (12) or reflecting it towards the cavity (8); a cooling circuit (18) formed in its entirety outside of the cavity (8), which includes a fluid canal (19) through which a heat-transfer fluid passes, each boundary component (9, 10, 11) being in thermal contact with a fluid canal (19).

Method for controlling a method for the manufacture of a container by stretch-blow-molding of a plastic preform (2) in a machine (1) including a mold (26), the preform (2) having a body (3), a neck (4) opening at one end of the body (3) and a bottom (5) closing the body (3) at another end thereof, the manufacturing method including the operations involving:heating the preform to a predetermined temperature in a thermal conditioning oven (10);introducing the preform (2) into the mold (26);moving a stretching pin (28) so as to stretch the preform (2); this control method involving a step that consists in determining the position of impact (P0r) of the stretch pin (28), namely the position it occupies at the moment at which it reaches the bottom (5) of the preform (2) during its movement.