A heating unit for heating preforms made of plastics material and having a flange separating a body and neck. The heating unit comprising a plurality of supports, each bearing a gripping member for gripping the preforms. The supports are movable in the heating unit such that each gripping member moves along a conveying path of the preforms. The heating unit also comprises a plurality of shells secured to the supports, where each shell is connected to one or more supports by an actuating member. The actuating member is mounted on said support to pivot about an axis situated at a distance from the conveying path of the preforms. The heating unit further comprising means for pivoting the actuating member to drive the shell from an open position to a protection position when the support to which said shell is connected is passing from an admission/releasing zone to a holding zone.

A method for manufacturing a resin container includes: a first injection-molding step of injection-molding a bottomed cylindrical resin intermediate molded body; a second injection-molding step of injection-molding a resin material on an outer side of the intermediate molded body to manufacture a multilayered preform having a resin layer laminated on an outer peripheral side of the intermediate molded body; and a blow-molding step of blow-molding the preform to manufacture a resin container having a thick portion.

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.

Apparatus for producing plastic containers has a heating device having a transport device for transporting the plastic preforms singly along a predefined transport path. The transport device has a plurality of holding devices for holding the plastic preforms, and at least one heating unit for heating the plastic preforms, wherein furthermore a rotating device is provided which rotates the plastic preforms held by the holding devices and is connected to a forming device, which transforms the plastic preforms transported by the heating device into plastic containers. The apparatus has an alignment device which enables alignment of the rotational position of the plastic preforms with respect to their longitudinal direction relative to the holding devices holding these plastic preforms and/or the apparatus has a rotational position alignment device arranged along the transport path which enables alignment of a rotational position of the holding devices with the plastic preforms arranged thereon.

Provided is an apparatus for heating plastic preforms, with a transport device which transports the plastic preforms along a predefined transport path, wherein this transport device has a plurality of holding elements for holding the plastic preform, and with at least one first heating section which is arranged along the transport path, and at least one second heating section which is arranged along the transport path downstream of the first heating section, wherein the heating sections each include a plurality of independently controllable heating elements which allow heating of the plastic preforms in several heating zones, lying above each other in the longitudinal direction of the plastic preforms, with a temperature profile which changes in the longitudinal direction of the plastic preforms, wherein the apparatus includes a control device for controlling these heating sections.

A method and device for producing an optimized neck contour on preforms below the neck which is optimal for subsequent stretch blow molding. The geometry has a significantly thinner wall thickness than the neck itself. The preform can only be produced in the injection molding tool, when axial channels are used on the point or the vanes produce the thin points on the preform during injection molding. The thin-walled geometry on the preform can be produced outside of the mold during post-cooling by embossing. The preform is there removed in a cooled receiving sleeve and is cooled in the body by intensive contact cooling while no cooling contact is made with the preform neck due to the initial position of the embossing element. Due to the reheating of the neck they can be mechanically deformed into a new geometry advantageous for blow molding and thus wall thickness can be influenced.

A heat treatment device for a PET bottle preform with an integral handle includes an air-cooling knife, a heating furnace, and a transport mechanism. The air-cooling knife is disposed on an outlet side of the heating furnace, the bottle preform is transported into the heating furnace through the transport mechanism, heated in the heating furnace, and transported to the air-cooling knife, and the air-cooling knife jets airflow to and cools a lower end of a handle of the bottle preform, appropriately reducing the temperature at junction of the lower end of the handle and a bottle body so that a gentle transition between the temperature of the bottle body and the temperature of the handle is achieved, and the handle is not easily deformed after the bottle preform is blown, thereby effectively improving the quality of the bottle preform after blown.

A method and device for producing an optimized neck contour on preforms below the neck which is optimal for subsequent stretch blow molding. The geometry has a significantly thinner wall thickness than the neck itself. The preform can only be produced in the injection molding tool, when axial channels are used on the point or the vanes produce the thin points on the preform during injection molding. The thin-walled geometry on the preform can be produced outside of the mold during post-cooling by embossing. The preform is then removed in a cooled receiving sleeve and is cooled in the body by intensive contact cooling while no cooling contact is made with the preform neck due to the initial position of the embossing element. Due to the reheating of the neck they can be mechanically deformed into a new geometry advantageous for blow molding and thus wall thickness can be influenced.

A method of manufacturing a polypropylene vessel using a single-step injection stretch blow molding machine using a heat-conditioning step. The method may include providing a chemical composition comprising polypropylene, forming a preform vessel of the chemical composition in a second shape, heating the preform vessel at a plurality of positions on the preform vessel with heat pots, wherein each of the heat pots is configured to heat a corresponding one of the plurality of positions on the preform vessel by raising a temperature of the heat pot to a respective temperature, wherein each respective temperature of each of the heat pots is different from another respective temperature of another of the heat pots, wherein the temperatures of the heat pots are based on the desired first shape of the product. The method may include forming, from the heated and expanded preform, a second vessel in a desired first shape.

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).