Getting Your Krones S24 Heating Just Right
If you’ve spent any time with a Krones S24, you know the headache of uneven heating. One minute everything is fine, the next you’ve got wall thickness issues or, worse, a structural failure that kills your yield. It’s frustrating. That’s why we didn’t just make “another lamp.” We built these specifically for the S24. They’re tuned to the exact infrared wavelength that PET resin actually likes, so the heat goes where it belongs. The nitty-gritty on power Getting that thermal profile spot-on is a balancing act of wattage and voltage. We use high-voltage setups to push the heat density higher. This means your preform hits that glass transition temperature fast, without accidentally overheating. One quick tip: if you’re cranking up the wattage to shave seconds off your cycle times, keep an eye on your oven’s ventilation. If the lamp housing gets too hot, your filaments are going to burn out way faster than they should. Built to last (and fit) We use heavy-wall quartz glass here. Why? Because cheap tubes bow when they get hot. These stay straight. They come with standard R7s or SK15 connectors, so you can just pop them in. No rewiring, no messing around with your racks. We also added a special coating to the quartz. Instead of wasting energy heating up the machine frame, it focuses that heat right on the preform. What happens on the floor You’ll notice the difference in the “cold spots.” Our lamps give you a steady, linear heat output from end to end. It means you can stop spending your whole shift constantly tweaking the oven settings. A couple of pro tips for the install: Check your socket tension. If the connection is loose, you’ll get arcing, which fries the ends of the lamp. It’s a waste of money. Also, try to replace them in sets of four or eight. It keeps the heat field symmetrical across the blowing station, and your bottles will thank you for it.