Getting Your KTK Oval Printing Lamps Right
If you’re swapping out heating elements in a KTK oval press, you already know that just “matching the length” isn’t enough. You don’t want to spend your afternoon fighting with wiring or, worse, dealing with unexpected downtime because a part didn’t actually fit. That’s why we build our lamps as direct drop-ins. You just pull the old one out and slide ours in. No rewiring controllers. No hacking away at the lamp holders. It just works. Let’s talk about the electrical side. We build these to hit the exact voltage and wattage your KTK system expects. Here’s the thing: if you throw a lamp with lower resistance into a circuit meant for a higher load, you’re asking for trouble. You’ll likely blow a fuse or fry your SCR. By matching the wattage perfectly, the heat density stays the same every single centimeter. That means your ink cures the same way on the first shirt as it does on the five-hundredth. The build quality. We use high-purity quartz glass. Why? Because these things go through a lot of thermal shock when they cycle on and off. They need to be tough. The fit is 1:1. No rattling in the housing, no weird pressure on the end caps. We use standard industrial connectors, too. They slide right into your existing sockets. No adapters. No “making it work” with duct tape and a prayer. A few tips from the field. When you’re installing these, do yourself a favor and check your contact points for oxidation. A loose connection at the socket creates a hot spot. If that happens, you’ll melt your housing long before the lamp actually burns out. One more thing. If you decide to go with higher wattage lamps to speed up your cure times, keep an eye on your exhaust. More heat means your ventilation has to work harder. If the air isn’t moving, that heat soaks into the press frame. Over time, that can actually warp things and throw your mechanical alignment off. Keep the air flowing, and you’ll be golden.