Krones Contiform stretch blow moulder

Krones has now released its fourth generation Contiform stretch blow moulders. Its development involved special attention to environmental compatibility and to further improving efficiency and flexibility. The machine can also be equipped with artificial intelligence (AI).

The distance between the heaters has been reduced, making the heating space more compact. They have also been redesigned with parabolic reflectors, which can reduce energy consumption by up to 11% compared to the previous generation.

The Air Wizard Triple air recycling system uses a three-stage compressed-air recycling process that can reduce compressed air consumption by as much as 20%.

The product has increased sustainability, such as through the use of protective panels made of recycled plastic.

The blow moulder uses a newly developed skip-and-run technology, which monitors the mould-hanger locking device and allows a blowing station that is not locked to pass along the main cam, for instance to eject a defective preform without triggering an emergency stop of the entire machine. That reduces the scrap rate and eliminates the need for operator intervention.

User-friendliness has been increased with the use of large-screen interface with touch technology and visualisation software. Assistant systems guide the operating personnel through the settings, even giving them suggestions to make using the machine more intuitive.

The system uses Cantiloop AI, an automatic process control system. This detects small variation in material distribution in the production of PET containers and automatically adjusts key stretch-blow-moulding parameters in real time, keeping bottle quality high. This factor is particularly important when working with recycled PET, which requires uniform quality and composition to be suitable for use.