Getting Huge Glass Sheets Through a CNC Tunnel Without the Cracks
If you’ve ever worked with oversized glass, you know the nightmare of a sheet cracking right during the scoring process. It usually comes down to thermal stress. Standard heating lamps just can’t keep up when the glass gets this big. That’s why we build custom infrared heating units that stretch past 2 meters. They’re designed specifically for those long tunnel kiln setups where you can’t afford a single cold spot.
The struggle with long heating zones
Here’s the thing: once you go beyond 2 meters, physics starts to work against you. You risk getting uneven heat or, worse, the metal expanding and warping. We don’t try to force one giant, fragile tube to do the job. Instead, we use a series of high-wattage quartz lamps wired together. It feels like one big, steady heat zone, but it’s actually a modular system. This means the glass hits the right temperature from edge to edge, every single time.
What’s under the hood?
We stick with short-wave infrared. Why? Because it hits the glass fast and penetrates deep. To keep things from melting down, we house the lamps in reinforced quartz sleeves. They can take the brutal heat of a tunnel kiln without flinching. We also tweak the voltage and wattage to match your specific power grid, so you aren’t fighting your own electrical panel. When it comes to the connectors, you’ve got a choice between R7s or Sk15. If you want to swap out a burnt-out lamp quickly without shutting down the whole line for an hour,go with the R7s. It’s just faster.
A few things to keep in mind
These units put out a massive amount of heat. That’s great for keeping your CNC line moving fast, but it means your ventilation has to be on point. If your airflow is sluggish, heat builds up in the housing. That’s a recipe for shortening your lamp life. We build these as drop-in replacements for your existing tunnel frames. We keep the fit tight so you aren’t wasting energy—the heat goes into the glass, not into the room.