Getting Your SIG Blomax 4 Heat Just Right
If you’ve spent any time with a KHS or SIG Blomax 4, you know the headache of uneven heat. One part of the preform stretches perfectly, while another stays too thick. It’s frustrating. You end up fighting the machine just to get a consistent bottle. We got tired of seeing those hot and cold spots, so we built our replacement infrared lamps to actually fix it. We focused on the boring stuff—like tighter filament winding and cleaner quartz—because that’s where the real difference happens. The Power Side of Things The Blomax 4 is picky. It needs a very specific balance of wattage and voltage to keep that PET preform in the sweet spot. Our lamps are built to fit the original footprint exactly. You just pop them in. No fuss. We use high-wattage shortwave lamps because they hit hard and fast, which is what you need when you’re running high-speed cycles. But a quick heads-up: pushing these to the limit puts more stress on your oven’s ventilation. If your cooling fans are caked in dust, these lamps will burn out way faster than they should. Keep those fans clean. Better Glass, Better Heat Here’s the secret: we use high-purity quartz. Most glass absorbs some of the heat itself, which just wastes energy and heats up your housing. Our quartz lets the energy fly straight into the preform. We also fixed the “edge-effect.” You know how the heat usually drops off at the ends of the tube? We centered the filaments better to stop that. Now, the heat is flat and even across the whole zone. What Happens on the Floor Installation is a breeze. We use standard industrial connectors, so you don’t have to touch your wiring or “modify” anything. In the real world, we’ve seen these tubes match or even beat the OEM versions. The best part? You stop spending your shift constantly tweaking the heating zones. You set it, it stays consistent, and you can actually focus on other things.