The Headache of Cold Spots (And How We Fix Long Glass Tunnel Kilns)
Most infrared lamps stop at about a meter. That’s fine for small jobs, but if you’re running a massive glass tunnel kiln, it’s a nightmare. You end up with a bunch of short segments, and every single joint becomes a “cold spot.” It ruins the consistency. To fix this, we build custom short-wave quartz heating units that push past 2 meters. No gaps. No cold spots. Just a steady stream of heat. The struggle with power and voltage You can’t just stretch a quartz tube and call it a day. Physics gets in the way. The longer the tube, the higher the electrical resistance. If you try to run a 2-meter lamp on standard low voltage, the center of the tube just won’t keep up with the ends. You’ll get uneven heating, which is exactly what we’re trying to avoid. We handle this by tweaking the filament diameter and bumping up the voltage specs. It ensures the heat is just as intense in the middle as it is at the edges. Dealing with thermal stress We use high-purity fused quartz because short-wave radiation hits operating temperature almost instantly. It’s an aggressive jump in heat. Here’s the tricky part: a 2-meter tube expands a lot. If your mounting brackets are clamped too tight, the tube will literally snap the first time it heats up. It’s a loud, expensive mistake. We design the housing so the quartz has room to breathe and move. The trade-offs you should know about You can wire these in series or parallel, depending on what your power cabinet can handle. It’s pretty flexible. But let’s be honest—there’s a catch. A 2-meter lamp gives you a perfect heat profile, but it’s way more fragile than a tiny 500mm tube. One bad bump or a clumsy accident can take out a huge section of your line. You’ll need a rock-solid support frame. If the tube sags even a little, the filament can shift, and you’ll burn through the lamp way too fast. Also, double-check your cooling fans. You’re dealing with a lot of total wattage in a continuous run, and you don’t want your electrical terminals melting.