Quantitative infrared thermography applied to blow moulding process: measurement of a heat transfer coefficient

Abstract : This paper deals with the heat conditioning stage of blow moulding process applied to P.E.T bottles forming. One of the most important stage of this process is the radiative heating stage which is performed with infrared ovens using powerful halogen lamps. To validate a 3D control volume thermal software, called Plastirad, developed in our laboratory, temperatures maps were needed on the plastic preforms as well as convective heat transfer coefficient inside the oven. This measurement has been performed with two different methods : IR thermography and hot wire anemometry. These two methods are investigated and the main results are compared to focus on the interest of IR thermography.