Better Heating Bulbs for Your Sidel SBO and Matrix Lines
If you’ve spent any time around a PET stretch blow molder, you know the headache of wall thickness variation. One wrong temperature spike and you’re staring at a pile of scrap. That’s why we make infrared heating bulbs that actually fit Sidel platforms—whether you’re still running the old-school SBO machines or the newer Matrix series. The power side of things We use high-wattage quartz envelopes to get that short-wave infrared heat just right. It’s the only way to get PET preforms heated fast enough for high-speed runs. We build these to match the exact voltage and wattage of the OEM units. If you’re running a 400V high-output tube, you’re getting the heat density you need to keep the line moving. But here’s a pro tip: that kind of power puts a lot of pressure on your oven’s ventilation. If your blowers are clogged with dust, these bulbs will overheat and burn out way too soon. Keep those fans clean. No tools, no drama Nobody wants to spend their weekend rewiring an oven. We hate that too. That’s why we mirrored the OEM dimensions and connector types—usually R7s or SK15 bases. You just pop the old one out and drop ours in. No modifications, no custom brackets, no fuss. We also use heavy-wall quartz, so the bulbs don’t warp when things get scorching hot inside the machine. Getting the heat where it belongs The real goal is simple: uniform heat. Our bulbs are built to stay stable for thousands of hours. Plus, we’ve dialed in the focal length to match Sidel’s reflectors perfectly. This means the heat hits the plastic exactly where it should, instead of accidentally roasting the neck or the collar. It keeps your cycle times steady and, more importantly, it keeps your scrap rates low. It just works.