Stop the Headache of Breaking Tubes in Your SIG Blomax Lines
If you’re running SIG Blomax lines with PC preforms, you know the frustration. You’re in the middle of a run and—snap—another tube burns out. It’s a pain. Usually, this happens because the lamps just can’t handle the stress or the heat isn’t hitting the plastic the way it should. We’ve spent a lot of time fixing this. We built our replacement softening lamps specifically for Polycarbonate. Why? Because PC is a different beast than PET. It needs more heat and it needs that heat to actually get inside the material, not just bake the outside.
Built to take the heat
Most lamps give up the ghost at the pinch point—right where the electrode meets the quartz. It’s a weak spot. We beefed up the internal support so these can handle the constant heating and cooling of a high-speed line without cracking. The best part? They’re drop-in replacements. You don’t have to mess with your wiring or rebuild your lamp holders. You just swap them in and get back to work. Now, a quick heads-up: these lamps put out a lot of power to get those preforms soft and uniform. That’s great for your cycle times, but it puts more pressure on your oven’s cooling fans. If your vents are dusty or clogged, the housing will overheat, and your quartz won’t last nearly as long. Keep those fans clean.
Getting the heat where it matters
Since Polycarbonate has a higher transition temperature, we used a specific grade of quartz. It’s designed to push short-wave infrared light deep into the core of the preform. This means you get a consistent soften, rather than scorching the surface and ending up with “thin spots” or weird deformations in your bottles. We also used heavy-duty electrodes. This stops that annoying flickering (arcing) at the contact points, which is usually what causes uneven heating in the first place.
Keeping things running
These lamps fit the SIG footprint perfectly. You can swap them out during a normal maintenance window without having to spend hours recalibrating the entire oven. If you want these tubes to last as long as possible, do me a favor: check the tension on your sockets. If the connections are loose, heat builds up at the terminals. That’s actually the number one reason most lamps burn out early. A tight fit equals a longer life. Simple as that.