US 12,377,599 B2
Method for heating a preform and corresponding method for forming a container
Damien Jean-Philippe Kannengiesser, Golbey (FR)
Assigned to Societe des Produits Nestle S.A., Vevey (CH)
Appl. No. 18/007,344
Filed by SOCIETE DES PRODUITS NESTLE S.A., Vevey (CH)
PCT Filed Jul. 30, 2021, PCT No. PCT/EP2021/071385
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jan. 30, 2023,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/029025, PCT Pub. Date Feb. 10, 2022.
Claims priority of application No. 20189147 (EP), filed on Aug. 3, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0278275 A1, Sep. 7, 2023
Int. Cl. B29C 49/64 (2006.01); B29C 49/00 (2006.01); B29C 49/12 (2006.01); B29C 49/02 (2006.01); B29C 49/06 (2006.01); B29K 23/00 (2006.01); B29L 31/00 (2006.01)
CPC B29C 49/6445 (2013.01) [B29C 49/0005 (2013.01); B29C 49/071 (2022.05); B29C 49/12 (2013.01); B29C 2049/024 (2013.01); B29C 49/06 (2013.01); B29C 2949/0715 (2022.05); B29C 2949/0732 (2022.05); B29C 2949/0733 (2022.05); B29C 2949/0745 (2022.05); B29C 2949/0746 (2022.05); B29C 2949/0747 (2022.05); B29C 2949/0773 (2022.05); B29K 2023/06 (2013.01); B29K 2023/12 (2013.01); B29L 2031/7158 (2013.01)] 12 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for heating a preform comprising an open neck portion at a first end, a closed base portion at a second end, and a body portion extending along a longitudinal axis between the neck portion and the base portion, the preform being made in a thermoplastic material configured to withstand less than 5 Mpa at a stretch ratio above 250% while elongated under a strain rate of 16/s, the method comprising the following steps:
introducing the preform into a heating apparatus comprising an array of infrared emitters arranged in a plurality of columns and a plurality of rows, the preform and the array of infrared emitters being disposed such that the longitudinal axis and the plurality of columns of the array of infrared emitters are parallel or directed obliquely with respect to each other;
orienting angularly the preform at an input angular position by rotating the preform around the longitudinal axis;
setting power levels of the array of infrared emitters so as to divide the array of infrared emitters into subsets of the plurality of columns, each subset of the plurality of columns generating heat at a different power level from an adjacent subset of columns;
heating the preform with the array of infrared emitters while translating the preform in a direction parallel to the plurality of rows of the array of infrared emitters at a translation speed, and simultaneously rotating the preform around its longitudinal axis in front of the array of infrared emitters at a rotation speed,
the rotation speed, the translation speed, the input angular position and the power levels of the infrared emitters being set so that the power levels of the subsets of the plurality of columns facing at least three zones of the body portion extending longitudinally are different from the power levels of the subsets of the plurality of columns facing the rest of the body portion, the zones of the body portion extending relative to one another in a polygonal array, the power levels of the subsets of columns facing the zones of the body portion being set higher than the power levels of the subsets of columns facing the rest of the body portion if and only if the zones of the body portion have a greater thickness than the thickness of the rest of the body portion.