A Better Way to Handle Your SMI SR 12 Blowers
Let’s be honest: keeping a Krones Contiform line running is expensive. Between the downtime and the eye-watering cost of OEM parts, it can feel like you’re just burning money. That’s why we made a drop-in replacement lamp for the SMI SR 12. It does exactly what the original does, but it won’t kill your maintenance budget. The heat side of things Here’s the deal with the SR 12: you need a very specific kind of heat to get those PET preforms to the right temperature. If it’s too low, they won’t blow. Too high? You’ve got scorched plastic. Our lamps are built for high wattage so you can keep your cycle speeds where they need to be. We’ve focused the heat density right in the center of the tube. This stops those annoying uneven walls in your bottles. Plus, if your power supply starts acting up, you’ll see it immediately in the bottle’s pearlescence. It’s a tell-tale sign that something is off. What’s actually inside? We use high-purity quartz glass. Why? Because these things go through a lot of thermal shock every time they cycle on and off. They use R7s or Sk15 connectors, which keep the electrical contact tight. This is huge because it stops arcing at the terminals—which is basically just a fancy way of saying it prevents sparks and failures. We also added a special coating to the quartz. Instead of just heating the surface of the plastic, it pushes the infrared spectrum deeper into the preform wall. It’s a much more efficient way to get the job done. Getting them on the floor Installing these is easy. They fit the existing footprint of the SR 12, so you don’t have to mess around with your wiring or adjust your reflectors. Just swap them in and go. But a quick word of advice: high-output lamps put a lot more pressure on your cooling blowers. If you’re cranking up the wattage to shave seconds off your cycle time, keep a close eye on your oven ventilation. If the airflow is sluggish, your lamps will burn out way too fast, and you might even warp the oven housing. Just make sure your cooling can keep up with the heat, and these lamps will last you a long time.