A cooling and retaining pin (1) for cooling, by air blowing, and retaining, by air suction, a plastic preform, the pin comprising a body (2), defining a longitudinal axis and having a first opening (5) at a first end thereof, coaxial to said longitudinal axis and adapted to be connected to a handling station; a movable element (3) adapted to slide at least partially inside said body; at least one air passage gap provided at a second end of the body or at said first end; wherein the movable element (3) is adapted to move from a first position, to which a first air passage section corresponds, to a second position, to which a second air passage section corresponds, which is smaller than said first section, so as to adjust a blowing air flow during the cooling step and a suction air flow during the step of retaining the preform.

A manufacturing method includes an injection molding process of injection-molding a preform, a temperature adjustment process of temperature-adjusting the preform while cooling the preform, and a blow molding process of blow-molding the temperature-adjusted preform to manufacture a resin container. In the injection molding process, a step portion thicker than at least an engagement groove of a neck portion is formed between the neck portion and a body portion of the preform.

There is provided a mold unit for cooling a preform that has been injection-molded, the preform having a bottomed shape and made of a resin, the mold unit including a core mold having an outer shape corresponding to an inner shape of the preform, and being insertable into the preform, in which a flow path for a temperature adjustment medium extending in an axial direction of the core mold is formed inside the core mold, the flow path is formed at a position displaced in a circumferential direction of the core mold, and a position of the flow path is adjustable in the circumferential direction.

A blow molding device is provided in which a preform is injection-molded. The injection-molded preform is temperature-controlled by a temperature adjusting unit, and the temperature-adjusted preform is blow-molded, wherein the temperature adjusting unit has a multistage structure in which an uppermost stage has the highest temperature structure, and the mold surface temperatures of lower stages and other than the uppermost stage are set to be 10° C. or more lower than the glass transition temperature of the preform.

A blow molding apparatus comprises: a continuous transport section provided with a loop-shaped transport path for continuously transporting a preform; an intermittent transport section for intermittently transporting the preform to a blow molding section; and a delivery section for holding the preform being transported on the transport path, and delivering it to the intermittent transport section. The delivery section is equipped with a cooling means for jetting a cooling fluid from a first nozzle member onto an outer surface of the preform to cool the preform locally.

Devices, systems, and methods are generally directed to cooling preforms in a receptacle having a controllable shape. As compared to cooling preforms in a receptacle having a fixed shape, the devices, systems, and method of the present disclosure may facilitate faster and more reliable post-processing of preforms. As an example, the devices, systems, and methods of the present disclosure may reduce the likelihood of transfer issues associated with moving a preform into the cavity while also facilitating faster cooling of the preform disposed in the receptacle.

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.

The invention relates to a heat box for thermally conditioning preforms (10) that consist of a thermoplastic material and are provided for blow moulding, in which two lateral walls (32) and one base wall (34) delimit a heat tunnel through which the preforms (10) are conveyed, said heat tunnel comprising at least two parallel heat channels, and a heating unit (14) being arranged between two adjacent, particularly parallel heat channels and comprising a plurality of rod-shaped heating elements (16) that extend longitudinally in the conveyor direction of the preforms (10).

An injection nozzle for cooling and providing counter pressure to a neck of a preform during a forming of a container from the preform. The injection nozzle includes a manifold that defines a receiving space into which the neck of the preform is received. A cavity is also defined in a part by an inner wall and an outer wall of the manifold and a plurality of ports are provided through the inner wall to communicate the cavity with the receiving space. When a cooling medium is received into the cavity, the cooling medium is directed through at least some of the ports toward the neck of the preform located within the receiving space.

An apparatus (1) for handling and cooling plastic preforms comprising a rotatable handling station (2), provided with a plurality of retaining and cooling pins (3) for preforms and adapted to cooperate with an extraction plate (4) adapted to extract the preforms from an injection mold; an aeraulic circuit (5) connected to said station and comprising an aspiration duct (6) for aspirating air from the inside of the station; a delivery duct (7) for sending air to said station; cooling means (8) arranged along the delivery duct for cooling the air sent to said station; aspiration means (9, 19, 29) connected at least to the aspiration duct and to the delivery duct, and wherein switching means are further provided, to pass from a first circuit configuration, in which there is an air passage from the delivery duct to the inside of the station, to a second circuit configuration in which there is an air passage from the inside of the station to the aspiration duct, whereby, in the first configuration, air is blown by means of the plurality of pins, while, in the second configuration, air is aspirated by means of said plurality of pins.