| Krones AG, Neutraubling, Germany, has come up with a surprise for the K 2010, the world’s premier trade fair for plastics and plastics processing, with the concept of the FlexWave oven for the Contiform stretch blow-moulding machine – a new, innovative microwave heating technology. The Contiform S8 on show at the K 2010, with its FlexWave heating technology, may prove to be the stretch blow-moulding machine of the future. Since the end of 2009, a Contiform S8 FlexWave has been up and running every day at a bottling plant. FlexWave scores primarily in terms of its significantly lower energy consumption in comparison to infra-red technologies currently available on the market. |
Thanks to the unique technology involved, FlexWave is particularly well suited for Contiform/filler monoblocs, since thanks to the very short heating time the number of preforms inside the oven has been reduced to a fraction of the former figure, resulting in very low preform losses in the event of an emergency stop; there are no start-up times needed for re-heating the system.
Unprecedented process options
Each microwave station is fitted with an enclosed cavity resonator, which ensures that the microwave energy is properly deposited in the preform. The exceptionally high penetration depth enables the preform to be evenly warmed up without surface cooling and an equalisation time, Since each heating station can be separately controlled, this produces an unprecedented gamut of process variability options, independently of the preform’s colour, the PET material or the proportion of recyclate. No other technology is able to combine very deep penetration, energy density and heating speed in this way.
| Danuta Kessler-Zieroth Pressereferentin Telefon: +49 9401 70-2222 Fax: +49 9401 70-3496 |
