Disclosed is an apparatus for heating plastic preforms, having a transport device which transports the plastic preforms along a predetermined transport path, the transport device having a circulating transport and a plurality of holding devices for holding the plastic preforms, having a plurality of heating devices which are arranged stationarily along the transport path, in such a way that the plastic preforms transported along the transport path are heated by these heating devices, the heating devices each having a plurality of heating lamps, and the apparatus having a detection device which is configured to detect a failure of the heating lamps, wherein the apparatus has a control device which is configured to control the apparatus in dependence on a number of heating lamps detected having failed.

A method for minimizing a deviation of a physical parameter of a blow-molded container from a target value comprises determining a physical parameter of a container assigned to a machine parameter value of a blow molding machine and an environmental condition, based on the physical parameter and the target value, determining a change in the machine parameter, based on an iteration process, determining an optimal machine parameter value for achieving a minimum deviation from the target value of the physical parameter of a blow-molded container, the iteration process comprising a first iteration step for determining a deviation from the target value of the physical parameter of a blow-molded container based on a change in the machine parameter value, and a second iteration step for determining an adjusted change in the machine parameter value based on the deviation of the physical parameter of a blow-molded container from the target value.

Systems and methods control the operation of a blow molder. An indication of a crystallinity of at least one container produced by the blow molder may be received along with a material distribution of the at least one container. A model may be executed, where the model relates a plurality of blow molder input parameters to the indication of crystallinity and the material distribution and where a result of the model comprises changes to at least one of the plurality of blow molder input parameters to move the material distribution towards a baseline material distribution and the crystallinity towards a baseline crystallinity. The changes to the at least one of the plurality of blow molder input parameters may be implemented.

A method of heating plastic blanks for molding comprises, for each blank in a sequence of blanks of different types, determining a heating requirement corresponding to characteristics of the blank a molding process to be applied and heating each blank according to its heating requirement. A microwave field is generated having a defined heating rate, and the blank is placed in the microwave field for a period of time equal to the heating duration, such that the heating duration and the heating rate correspond to the heating requirement.

A plastic bottle manufacturing device (50) includes a preform heating part (52) that includes a plurality of heating bodies (65), a blow-molding part (54) that molds a plastic bottle (20) by blow-molding a preform (10), and a preform temperature measuring part (53) that measures temperatures of the preform (10) at a plurality of measurement points (P) in a longitudinal direction of the preform (10). The plurality of measurement points (P) are provided in correspondence with the plurality of heating bodies (65). A control unit (70) controls an output of each heating body (65) based on an optimal temperature distribution at each measurement point (P) of the preform (10) that has been predetermined and an actually measured temperature distribution at each measurement point (P) of the preform (10).

A temperature adjustment mold capable of performing local temperature adjustment in an axial direction from the inside of a preform while restricting shrinkage and deformation of the preform, for adjusting a temperature of an injection-molded bottomed resin-made preform includes a rod portion inserted into the preform and extending in the axial direction of the preform. The rod portion includes an annular projection portion that protrudes in a radial direction of the rod portion and contacts an inner peripheral surface of the preform. The rod portion contacts a bottom portion of the preform to restrict shrinkage in the axial direction of the preform. The projection portion restricts shrinkage in a radial direction of the preform, conducts heat between the rod portion and the preform, and adjusts a temperature at a predetermined part in an axial direction of the preform.

In a blow-molding apparatus, a cooling device and a heating device are each driven by being supplied with electricity of a predetermined voltage from a supply power source. The blow-molding apparatus comprises: a monitoring device configured to constantly monitor fluctuation of the predetermined voltage; and an output automatic control mechanism configured to, in a case where the predetermined voltage monitored by the monitoring device fluctuates beyond a normal range, automatically fluctuate an output of at least one of the heating device and the cooling device to keep the output in a certain range, thereby adjusting at least one of the preform temperature and the ambient temperature to fall within a normal temperature range.

Method of manufacturing containers by blow-molding preforms, comprising a phase of heating the preforms (3) followed by a phase of forming the containers (this phase comprising a pre-blowing step followed by a blowing step), this method comprising the operations consisting in: detecting a pressure spike during the pre-blowing and comparing it against a reference spike, if the pressure in the pressure spike is below the reference pressure, checking an event history to determine whether a heating instruction and/or a forming instruction has been modified; if the result of this check is positive, commanding at least one of the following actions: o generating an alert alarm, o stopping the supply of preforms to the oven, o ejecting the containers derived from the affected preforms.

Provided is a method for calibrating at least one processing element, in a processing station for processing plastic preforms, includes providing: a first measurement preform establishing at least one first measurement value of the measurement preform before processing by the processing station, and a second measurement value of the measurement preform is measured by the measuring element or a further measuring element before or after processing by the processing station, and using at least these two measurement values, a mathematical temperature curve, is recorded by the measuring element, wherein at least one calibration device determines a deviation of the measured temperature curve from a mathematical standard temperature curve, and eliminates this deviation at least partially by adaptation of processing parameters of the processing station.

A method of analyzing preforms for potential bursting during forming and filling by injecting an incompressible liquid to shape the successive heating preforms into containers and fill the containers. The method defines at least one stress parameter correlated to the internal stress of the thermoplastic material of the preform and defines a range of acceptable values for the stress parameter. The method includes analyzing each successive initial preform and each successive heated preform, determining a value of the stress parameter, comparing the determined value to a range of acceptable values, and emitting an output signal when the determined value is outside the acceptable range of values.