Stop Overpaying for Krones Contiform Heating Lamps
Let’s be honest: OEM heating lamps are expensive. When they start popping on your Contiform lines, your maintenance budget takes a serious hit. We decided to fix that by making drop-in replacements that do the exact same job as the originals, but without the “brand name” price tag.
Getting the power right
These lamps are built for the heavy-duty 400V grids you’ve already got in your plant. By sticking to that architecture, we keep the current draw low. Why does that matter? Because in the tight spaces of a blower, you don’t want your wires overheating. We’ve dialed in the wattage so your PET preforms hit that glass transition temperature quickly. But a word of advice: don’t try to “hack” your cycle times by cranking the wattage too high. You’ll either scorch the plastic or burn through your lamps way faster than you should.
The gear inside
We use high-purity quartz glass because these machines are brutal on equipment. The constant heating and cooling would crack cheaper glass. Plus, we use a halogen cycle to keep the tubes clear. Without it, tungsten deposits cloud the glass, and your heat output starts to dip. As for the fit, we mostly use R7s or Sk15 connectors. They’re simple tension-fit sockets. That means when a tube goes, you can just swap it out and get back to work without having to wrestle with the wiring harness.
Making it work on the floor
In a Contiform setup, you need shortwave infrared radiation that hits the preform wall fast and hard. Our lamps are specced to handle the rapid on-off cycling that comes with high-speed production. They can take the punch. One quick tip before you install them:check your reflectors. If your reflectors are dirty or pitted, it doesn’t matter how good the lamp is—you’re going to get uneven heating. It’s a frustrating mechanical quirk of the machine, but a quick clean-up usually solves it.