Dealing with Heat Spots in KHS Blow Molding Lines
Ever pull a batch of PET bottles off the line only to find they look “cloudy” or have weird thin spots in the walls? It’s frustrating. Usually, it comes down to one thing: your KHS oven isn’t heating the preforms evenly. You get these annoying hot and cold spots that mess up the stretch and leave you with structural weaknesses. We decided to fix that. We built infrared lamps that you can just slide right into your existing setup to kill those hot spots for good. The nitty-gritty on the heat Most cheap tubes have a “center-heavy” problem—they blast heat in the middle and drop off at the ends. We stopped that by tightening up how the filament is wound. Since we match the exact voltage and wattage of the KHS footprint, they fit perfectly. But the real win is the linear power density. We make sure the heat is spread across the entire tube, not just clumped in the center. Why the materials matter We use high-purity quartz glass because it lets short-wave IR pass through without getting blocked. Depending on what resin you’re running, we can even add specific coatings to the glass. This helps the heat “hit” the PET exactly where it needs to be absorbed. And don’t worry about the install. We use standard industrial connectors, so you can wire them up quickly without worrying about any sparks or arc-overs at the terminals. One thing to keep in mind Here’s the deal: these lamps put out a lot of punch. Because they’re more efficient, they generate more intensity. That means you’ve got to make sure your oven’s ventilation and cooling fans are actually doing their job. If your airflow is clogged with dust or grime, the chassis can overheat. Just give your fans a quick check before you swap them in. The bottom line We’ve mapped the thermal fields, and these consistently beat the OEM options. You get a much tighter heat distribution. For you, that means fewer rejects hitting the conveyor and faster cycle times. It’s a simple hardware swap that just makes the whole production line feel stable again.