Cutting Down Maintenance Costs on Your Krones Contiform Heating Modules
If you’re running Krones Contiform systems, you know the drill. You need a perfect thermal profile, or you’re stuck dealing with stress marks and thin walls in your PET bottles. It’s a balancing act. And when the OEM lamp prices start creeping up, it starts to feel like a tax on your production. The good news? You don’t have to overpay to keep your quality high. You just need a replacement that actually does the job without messing up your blow mold cycle.
Let’s talk heat
We build our quartz IR lamps to hit the exact wattage and voltage your Contiform oven expects. We use high-wattage shortwave lamps because PET doesn’t have time to wait—it needs to absorb energy fast. By using a high-voltage setup, we can cram more power into a shorter tube. This gives you that aggressive heat flux you need to get your temperature ramp-up finished in a matter of seconds. But here is a pro tip: when you push these lamps to the limit, your oven’s ventilation has to work harder. If your blowers are clogged with dust, the lamps will overheat and burn out way too soon.Keep those blowers clean.
The gear that lasts
Thermal shock is a killer. That’s why we use high-purity fused quartz. These tubes can handle the rapid heating and cooling cycles without warping or cracking. Then there’s the connection. We use standard R7s or Sk15 connectors, but we’re obsessive about the fit. Why? Because a loose connection is a disaster waiting to happen. It creates an arc point, which fries the socket and kills the lamp. A tight fit means a long life. Simple as that.
Getting them into your line
The best part is that these are direct replacements. We match the OEM’s focal length and infrared wavelength, so your heating curve stays exactly where it should be. You can just swap them into your existing racks. No recutting the footprint. No messing around with your PLC thermal profiles. You just plug them in and get back to work. It’s a straightforward way to stop bleeding money on maintenance without slowing down your line.