Swapping Out Your KTK Elliptical Printing Lamps Without the Headache
If you’ve ever had to replace infrared drying tubes in a KTK elliptical press, you know it’s not as simple as just finding something the right length. Get it wrong, and you’re looking at unexpected downtime or, even worse, fried controllers. You need a lamp that fits the footprint and hits the electrical load exactly. Period. Getting the specs right We make these tubes to be true drop-in replacements. We’re talking about matching the voltage and wattage to the original KTK requirements. Here’s the thing: if you pop in a lamp with lower resistance than what the machine expects, you risk overloading your transformer. That’s a mess nobody wants to clean up. We also keep the dimensions tight. If the tube doesn’t sit perfectly in the reflectors, you’ll get gaps. Those gaps mean uneven heat, which shows up as ugly drying streaks on your substrate. Not a great look. The build quality We use high-purity quartz glass because these things take a beating. They have to handle the thermal shock of cycling on and off rapidly without cracking. Inside, the heating element is dead-center. This ensures the infrared radiation hits the ink exactly where it needs to. We stick with specific tungsten filaments to keep the output steady. Since we use shortwave IR, the heat penetrates the ink fast, so you don’t end up melting or overheating your carrier film. Installing and a few warnings The good news? You can use your existing connectors. No hacking away at the machine frame or making “creative” modifications. Just plug and play. But a word of caution. High-wattage tubes put out an intense amount of heat. If you’re pushing your press to the limit,double-check your exhaust blowers. If the airflow is clogged, heat builds up in the chamber. Over time, that extra heat can actually warp your reflectors. When you match the KTK specs, you can swap tubes during a quick changeover and get right back to work without messing around with your temperature controllers. It just keeps the line moving.