Getting Your Sulfet Machine Back Up and Running: The 27.25-Inch Quartz Heater
If you’ve spent any time working with Sulfet rotary printing machines, you already know the deal. The heating elements are usually the first things to give out. It’s frustrating, and it kills your momentum. That’s why we make our 27.25-inch quartz heater tubes as simple drop-in replacements. No hacking the chassis, no “making it fit,” and no headaches. You just swap them out and get back to work. The fit has to be spot on. We’re talking about a very specific 27.25-inch length for a reason. If a tube is even a tiny bit too long, it won’t sit in the brackets. Too short? You get gaps in your heat curtain, and suddenly your fabric is drying unevenly. Not a great look. We use high-purity fused quartz because it can handle the constant stress of heating up and cooling down without cracking. It puts the heat exactly where it needs to be—right on the ink. How it actually works Inside that quartz envelope is a tungsten filament. We use quartz because it lets short-wave infrared radiation pass straight through. Instead of wasting energy heating up the air around the machine, the heat hits the fabric directly. Depending on what you’re printing, we can give you different coatings. Some people want a focused beam; others need the heat to spread out more. Just let us know what you’re looking for. A few tips for the install We’ve matched these to the original Sulfet electrical footprint. You can use your existing connectors, so you won’t be hunting for adapters in the middle of a shift. But here is a pro tip: these tubes get incredibly hot. If your reflectors are dirty or pitted, you’re wasting a huge chunk of your heat.**Keep those reflectors polished.**If they’re grimey, the heat bounces back and burns out the ends of the tubes. And one last thing—resist the urge to crank the voltage just to speed up production. It might feel faster in the moment, but you’ll kill the filament life way sooner than you should.