Adiabatic high pressure generation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10022905-B2
Application number	US-201615185302-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 17, 2016
Priority date	Jun 25, 2015
Publication date	Jul 17, 2018
Grant date	Jul 17, 2018

Abstract

The invention relates to a system for transforming plastics material preforms into plastics material containers having a plurality of blow molding stations which are arranged on a carrier and in each case comprise a blow mold for expanding plastics material preforms into plastics material containers inside this blow mold by means of a pressurized pneumatic medium which is supplied to the respective blow molding station via a pressure supply device and which is at least partially extracted again from the respective blow molding station after the expansion operation via a pressure extraction device. According to the invention it has an energy conversion device, with the aid of which at least part of the potential energy stored in an energy store can be turned into an increase in the potential energy of a pneumatic medium associated with at least one blow mold, wherein the energy conversion device has an intermediate energy storage device, and at least part of the potential energy extracted from the energy store, and the energy transmitted by the energy conversion device, can be stored in the form of kinetic energy in the intermediate energy storage device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for transforming plastics material preforms into plastics material containers, comprising:
a plurality of blow moulding stations which are arranged on a carrier, wherein each of the blow moulding stations comprises a blow mould for expanding plastics material preforms into plastics material containers inside the blow mould by a pressurised pneumatic medium which is supplied to the respective blow moulding station via a pressure supply device and which is at least partially extracted again from the respective blow moulding station after the expansion operation via a pressure extraction device; wherein the system further has an energy conversion device; with the aid of which at least part of the potential energy stored in an energy store can be turned into an increase in the potential energy of a pneumatic medium associated with at least one blow mould, wherein the energy conversion device has an intermediate energy storage device, and at least part of the potential energy extracted from the energy store, and the energy transmitted by the energy conversion device; can be stored in the form of kinetic energy in the intermediate energy storage device; wherein the energy conversion device has at least one compression cylinder, wherein a piston of the at least one compression cylinder functions as an energy converter, wherein the at least part of the potential energy extracted from the energy store is used to drive the piston and further used to compress the pneumatic medium in a compression chamber of at least one compression cylinder; wherein the energy store for the potential energy includes at least one of a chamber on at least one of a rear side of the piston or the compression chamber of the at least one compression cylinder.

2. System according to claim 1 , wherein the energy conversion device is suitable and intended to extract at least part of the potential energy stored in the energy store, and at least intermittently to store a proportion of this extracted energy in the intermediate energy storage device in the form of kinetic energy, and simultaneously therewith to turn a further proportion of the extracted energy into an increase in the potential energy of the pneumatic medium associated with the at least one blow mould.

3. System according to claim 1 , wherein means for pretensioning a piston of a compression cylinder are provided as an energy store for potential energy in the energy conversion device.

4. System according to claim 1 , wherein the pneumatic medium which is used in an expansion operation inside a blow moulding station and at least partially delivered to a pressure chamber of a compression cylinder can be used in the energy conversion device as an energy store for potential energy.

5. System according to claim 1 , wherein the intermediate energy storage device can have a pivotable or a rotatable mass respectively as kinematic intermediate storage means.

6. System according to claim 5 , wherein the kinematic intermediate storage means is an oscillating weight.

7. System according to claim 1 , wherein at least an amount of energy of 1 kJ of the energy extracted from the energy store and transmitted by the energy conversion device can be stored intermediately in the intermediate energy storage device.

8. System according to claim 1 , wherein a reduction of the pressure of the pneumatic medium within a first blow mould can be coupled to the increase in the pressure of the pneumatic medium in a further blow mould by the energy conversion device.

9. System according to claim 1 , wherein the energy conversion device is arranged on the stationary part of the system.

10. System according to claim 1 , wherein the system has a driving device for driving the energy conversion device.

11. System according to claim 1 , wherein dead space volume of all blow moulding stations is the same.

12. System according to claim 1 , wherein on at least one blow moulding station and preferably on all blow moulding stations additional dead space volume can be connected and/or a stroke of at least one compression cylinder can be changed and/or a preliminary blow moulding pressure in at least one blow moulding station can be set independently and/or a pretensioning force in at least one compression cylinder is variable.

13. System according to claim 1 , wherein the energy conversion device has at least one compression cylinder and a compression piston surface of the at least one compression cylinder has on at least one side an active surface which is variable in its surface area, wherein preferably the compression piston surface of the compression piston of the at least one compression cylinder has at least one annular surface which can be acted upon and/or at least one circular surface which can be acted upon.

14. System according to claim 1 , wherein the energy conversion device has two coupled compression cylinders and is capable of and suitable for supplying several blow moulding stations of the system with pressurised pneumatic medium, wherein the two coupled compression cylinders are preferably coupled without vibration to the system or to the carrier respectively.

15. System according to claim 1 , wherein the system has a control device which is suitable for connecting a first blow mould, inside which the pressure of a pneumatic medium is to be reduced, fluidically to an energy conversion device, and wherein moreover the control device is preferably suitable for, simultaneously with or following a fluidic connection of the energy conversion device to the said first blow mould, connecting the energy conversion device fluidically to a further blow mould, inside which the pressure of a pneumatic medium is to be increased or should be increased respectively.

16. Method of expanding plastics material preforms to form plastics material containers inside a blow mould of a blow moulding station by means of a pressurised pneumatic medium; wherein a plastics material preform inside at least one first blow mould of a blow moulding station is acted upon with pressurised pneumatic medium which is provided by means of a pressure supply device and is expanded to form a plastics material container, and after the expansion operation the pneumatic medium is at least partially extracted from the blow mould by means of a pressure extraction device; wherein at least part of the potential energy stored in an energy store is extracted therefrom and converted by an energy conversion device into an increase in the potential energy of a pneumatic medium associated with at least one further blow moulding station; wherein at least a part of the energy transferred from the energy conversion device is stored intermediately in the form of kinetic energy in an intermediate energy storage device, and wherein with the resulting pneumatic medium with increased potential energy at least one plastics material preform is expanded in a blow mould of the at least one further blow moulding station in order to form a plastics material container, the method further comprising:
constructing and arranging the energy conversion device to have at least one compression cylinder; wherein a piston of the at least one compression cylinder functions as an energy converter; wherein the at least part of the potential energy extracted from the energy store is used to drive the piston and further used to compress the pneumatic medium in a compression chamber of at least one compression cylinder; wherein the energy store for the potential energy includes at least one of a chamber on at least one of a rear side of the piston or the compression

Assignees

• Krones Ag
• Krones Ag

Inventors

• Knapp Peter
• Senn Konrad
• Huber Manfred

Classifications

• B29C49/36 Primary

  rotatable about one axis · CPC title

• B29C49/06

  Injection blow-moulding · CPC title

• B29L2031/7158

  Bottles · CPC title

• B29L2031/712

  Containers; Packaging elements or accessories, Packages (closures therefor B29L2031/56; ink or toner cartridges B29L2031/7678; squeeze tubes B29L2023/20; suitcases B29L2031/7418) · CPC title

• B29C49/4247

  using spreading or extending means · CPC title