Fixing the Constant Lamp Failures on your Nissei ASB 150DP and SIG Blomax
If you’re running SIG Blomax lines, you know the headache. Your tubes keep failing. Usually, it’s just the brutal reality of thermal shock and structural fatigue—the lamps simply can’t keep up with the stress. We got tired of seeing that happen, so we built a replacement lamp for the Nissei ASB 150DP that actually holds up. It’s a drop-in fix, but it’s built to take a beating. Dealing with the heat Here’s the thing about PET preforms: you need them to hit that exact softening point. Too low, and you’ve got problems. Too high, and you’re scorching the plastic. Our lamps pack a lot of power into a small space so you can get up to temperature fast and keep your cycle speeds where they need to be. But a word of warning: because these run so hot, your oven’s ventilation has to be wide open. If the airflow is blocked, the quartz envelope will overheat, and you’ll kill the lamp way sooner than you should. Why these don’t just snap We went with heavy-wall quartz glass. Why? Because thin glass bows and cracks when the temperature swings wildly. Inside, we tuned the halogen cycle to keep the filament centered. Cheap lamps let the filament drift, which is exactly why they burn out so fast. We also beefed up the end-cap seals. If gas leaks out, the lamp is toast the moment the machine hits peak temp. A tight seal is everything. Getting them in the machine You won’t have to fight with the fit. These are built to the exact dimensions of the Nissei ASB 150DP housing. That means the infrared heat hits the preform dead-center, every single time. Plus, we used standard connectors, so you aren’t wasting time on the wiring. The best move is to swap these out during a scheduled stop. It beats the hell out of an unplanned shutdown in the middle of a shift. One last tip: even though the reinforced quartz lasts longer, keep an eye on your contact points. Check for oxidation every few months. If those terminals get crusty, they’ll overheat, and no amount of heavy-duty glass can fix that.