Patent ID: 8602770

Claim:
An apparatus for heating plastics-material performs for producing bottles having long sides and short sides, with a conveying device which conveys the plastics-material preforms along a pre-determined conveying path, and with a heating device which is arranged along the conveying path of the plastics-material preforms and which heats the plastics-material preforms, wherein the apparatus has at least one first contacting element arranged downstream with respect to the heating device for acting upon a wall of the plastics-material preform with a temperature profile varying in a peripheral direction and/or longitudinal direction of the plastics-material preform, which contacting element touches with a contact face a pre-determined region bounded in the peripheral direction and/or longitudinal direction of the plastics-material preforms of the wall of the plastics-material preform in order to act upon said region with a temperature profile different from regions not touched by the contacting element, and the apparatus has an advancing device which advances the contacting element to the plastics-material preform in a pre-determined direction, wherein the contacting element is arranged on a support wheel, wherein a size of the region of the wall touched is selected in a manner dependent upon a ratio between the long and short sides of the bottle to be produced, and an additional contacting element arranged on a support wheel, and wherein the additional contacting element is arranged on a support and capable of being extracted in a longitudinal direction.