Stop the Blow-outs: Getting Your Sidel SBO Series 2 Heating Right
If you’re running a SIG Blomax line and your tubes keep blowing out, you already know the headache. It usually comes down to two things: your heat is uneven, or your lamps are just worn out. We’ve spent a lot of time looking at why these fail, and we built our replacement lamps for the SBO Series 2 to actually hold up under pressure. The power side of things Here’s the deal with the SBO Series 2: you have to hit that sweet spot with wattage and voltage. If you miss, you either don’t hit the glass transition temperature or you end up scorching the PET. We made these lamps a direct fit. You just pop them in. We use high-wattage shortwave infrared because you need that heat to penetrate fast when you’re running high-speed cycles. Just a heads-up—double-check your power supply. If it can’t handle the peak draw when you first flip the switch, you’re going to be tripping breakers all morning. Why these don’t just snap Most quartz tubes give up the ghost at the pinch seal or where the connector hits. The constant heating and cooling just wears them down. To fix that, we used reinforced quartz glass and a better way of bonding the electrodes. It makes the lamps tougher. When the blowing machine starts vibrating—which it always does—these tubes can take it without cracking. And please, make sure your connectors are tight. A loose fit creates an arc, and that’ll fry your socket faster than you can blink. What to expect when you install them These things are built for the grind of high-volume production. Because the infrared output stays steady, you won’t find yourself constantly fiddling with the oven temperature. Now, since we beefed up the structure to make them last longer, the thermal profile might feel a tiny bit different at first. You’ll probably want to tweak your heating zones during the first 100 cycles just to get the preform temperature exactly where you want it. One last thing: keep your cooling fans clean. If they’re clogged with dust, it doesn’t matter how tough the lamps are—they’re still going to overheat.