Getting the Heat Right: A No-Nonsense Guide to Shortwave Halogen
If you’ve ever dealt with industrial ovens, you know the struggle of heating the air around the food instead of the food itself. It’s a waste of time and money. That’s why we build our infrared halogen lamps the way we do. We use a tungsten filament inside a quartz tube, packed with a specific halogen gas mix. This keeps the filament from evaporating, which means we can crank the temperature way up. The result? You get shortwave infrared that hits the food directly. No waiting for the air to warm up first. The Nitty-Gritty on Power Depending on how fast your line is moving, you’ll probably want something between 230V and 400V. If you need longer tubes—we do anything from 150mm to 500mm—you’ll need that higher voltage to keep the wattage where it needs to be. But a heads-up: these things pack a massive punch. Just make sure your wiring and control panels can handle that initial surge of power when you flip the switch. You don’t want to be chasing tripped breakers in the middle of a shift. Quartz and Connections We stick with high-purity quartz because it lets that shortwave IR pass through without soaking up the energy. For the plugs, we use R7s or SK15 connectors. They’re simple, standard, and should slide right into most industrial setups without a fight. Some of our lamps have a reflective gold coating on the back. It’s a simple trick, but it works. It bounces the heat forward, essentially doubling the energy hitting your product and stopping the heat from bleeding out the back. Making it Work in the Real World The best part? These lamps hit full temp in seconds. It’s almost instant. This makes it easy to tweak your heat profile on the fly using PID controllers. Just be careful with the mounting. Because the heat is so intense, the materials expand and contract. If your brackets are too tight, the quartz will crack under the pressure. Give them a little breathing room. And please, keep an eye on your cooling fans. If those die, the ambient heat will melt your sockets faster than you can react.