Stop Wasting Power on Your Glass Annealing
Let’s be honest: annealing is usually the biggest power hog in the entire plant. Most setups just blast the air in the oven, hoping the glass picks up enough heat. It’s inefficient. We do things differently. We use shortwave infrared (SWIR) lamps that hit the glass surface directly. Instead of heating up all that empty air, the energy goes straight into the workpiece. It’s a simple shift, but it cuts out a massive amount of wasted energy. Why it actually works Standard heating elements spend way too much wattage just warming up the room. Our IR lamps emit a specific kind of energy that glass just loves to absorb. Because the heat is focused, you hit your temperature setpoints much faster. That means you can speed up your conveyor belt without worrying about thermal shock or leaving residual stress in the glass. It’s fast. Really fast. And that changes your whole workflow. The “Gotcha” (and how to fix it) Now, there is a trade-off. To get this kind of heat density, we use high-wattage quartz tubes. You get instant control—heat on, heat off—which is great. But here’s the thing: these lamps get incredibly hot at the terminals. If you just throw them in without thinking about the wiring or cooling fans, you’re going to fry your connectors. Don’t let that happen. Use high-temp lead wires and make sure your housing has plenty of breathing room for airflow. Trust me on this one. Getting it into your plant The best part? You don’t need to rip out your entire line. We build these as drop-in replacements for those old, clunky resistive heaters. Just swap the old coils for our IR banks, hook them up to your existing PID controllers, and you’ll start seeing the difference in your power bill. Plus, since IR packs so much more punch, you can often shorten your annealing tunnel. That frees up some much-needed floor space for other things.