Stop Fighting Your Krones Contiform 1/2 Heat Issues
There’s nothing more frustrating than pulling bottles off the line and seeing thin walls or wobbly bases. You know the drill: you spend half your shift tweaking settings, but you’re still getting cold spots and uneven stretching. Usually, it’s not your machine’s fault. It’s the lamps. Either the spectral output is off, or the tubes are just worn out.
Getting the Heat Where it Actually Belongs
We built our replacement lamps to fit the Contiform 1/2 series perfectly. They’re short-wave halogen tubes, but we did a few things differently with the tungsten filament and gas pressure. The goal? To make sure the heat actually hits the PET material instead of just warming up the oven walls. These are high-wattage tubes, so they get your preforms up to temperature fast. That means faster cycle times and more bottles per hour. Just a heads-up: if you’re running these at full blast, your cooling fans are going to work harder.**Keep your vents clean.**If they’re clogged with dust, you’ll fry the lamp ends way sooner than you should.
No Rewiring, No Headaches
We use high-purity quartz glass so the lamps don’t get that cloudy look over time. Plus, they use standard R7s or Sk15 connectors. You just pop them in. No fancy wiring or electrical engineering degree required. Here’s the real trick, though: the internal coating. Most lamps have a “hot center” and weak edges, which is why you’re always messing with the zone settings. We added a thin-film layer that spreads the radiation evenly across the whole tube. It just works.
Putting Them to Work
The best time to swap these in is during your next scheduled PM. Since the dimensions are a dead match for the OEM parts, they slide right into the clips. You’ll notice the difference in your temperature profile almost immediately. One quick tip:wipe your contacts cleanbefore you plug them in. It prevents arcing at the terminals and keeps everything running smooth.