Getting Your Sidel Blomax Heating Lamps Just Right
If you’ve worked with Sidel machines for a while, you know the headache of keeping heat profiles consistent across different generations of gear. Whether you’re running an old-school SBO or the newer Matrix series—or even a SIG Blomax 10—the wattage and spectral match have to be spot on. Otherwise, you’re just guessing.
The “Drop-In” Reality
Look, making a lamp that physically fits into a slot is the easy part. The hard part? Making sure it doesn’t ruin your bottle’s wall thickness. We spent a lot of time mapping out the electrical footprints and dimensions of each series. Why? So you can just slide the lamp in and go. No messing with oven reflectors. No rewiring the power supply. We match the voltage and wattage exactly, so your PLC doesn’t throw a tantrum with error codes and your heat stays even across the board.
Heat, Plastic, and a Little Bit of Caution
We use short-wave infrared tech here because it punches through PET preforms fast. The quartz envelope is built to handle the shock of heating up and cooling down over and over again. We also added specific coatings to make sure the heat actually hits the plastic, instead of just warming up the oven walls. Now, here’s a tip: higher wattage tubes will definitely speed up your cycle times. But there’s a catch. Running them at full tilt puts a lot more pressure on your cooling fans. If your ventilation is clogged with dust or grime, those lamps are going to burn out way faster than they should.**Keep your airflow clear.**Your equipment will thank you.
Pro Tips for Installation
We use standard industrial connectors so the lamps seat firmly. You don’t want loose connections—that’s how you get arcing and melted terminals, which is a nightmare to clean up. When you’re swapping them out, take a second to check the contact pins for oxidation. Give them a quick clean. A crisp connection means the lamp hits its target temperature the moment you flip the switch. It’s a simple setup. No custom adapters, no endless downtime. Just a line that keeps moving.