Getting More Out of Your Old Sidel or Krones Blow Molders
If you’re running an older Sidel or Krones machine, you’ve probably noticed it. The preform heating just isn’t what it used to be. It’s inconsistent. It’s sluggish. Most people think they need a whole new oven to fix this, but you don’t. Usually, the problem is just tired lamps. Swapping those out for some high-spec infrared replacements is the quickest way to get your cycle speeds back where they belong. The heat side of things Here’s the thing: if you want more bottles per hour, you need more heat density. We’ve tuned our lamps with a specific wattage-to-length ratio so your PET preforms hit that glass transition temperature faster. But a quick heads-up—if you jump to a higher wattage to crank up the speed, keep an eye on your ventilation. You’ve got to make sure the oven can dump that extra ambient heat. If it can’t, you’re looking at a warped preform or a machine frame that’s way too hot for comfort. No rewiring, no headaches We use heavy-wall quartz glass because it doesn’t sag when things get hot. For the Sidel and Krones footprints, we use R7s or Sk15 connectors. They’re basically drop-in replacements. You just pop them into your existing sockets and you’re done. No need to open the control cabinet or mess around with the wiring. Plus, the halogen gas fill keeps the filaments strong, so the light stays steady for thousands of hours before you even notice a dim. What this actually does for you When you put these in, you’re hitting the exact infrared bands that PET loves. Instead of wasting energy heating up the air around the bottle, the heat goes straight into the plastic. You’ll see it in the bottles. The heat profile is more uniform, which means those annoying thin spots in the base and that cloudy “pearlescence” start to disappear. It’s a simple hardware swap. That’s it. But it’s enough to make an old machine keep pace with the new, flashy lines.