Cutting ultra-thick glass is brutal on your equipment. If you try to score that kind of material cold, your cutting wheels take a massive beating and burn out way faster than they should. It’s just a war of attrition. To fix this, we use high-penetration infrared (IR) heating lamps. The goal is to prep the glass along the cutting path before the wheel even makes contact. Here is the secret: standard heaters just warm up the surface. But with short-wave IR radiation, the heat actually sinks deep into the glass. It doesn’t melt the material—that would be a disaster—but it softens it just enough to take the edge off the resistance. Your tools will thank you. When the path is pre-heated, the wheel just glides. There’s less friction, which means the diamond edge isn’t chipping under insane pressure. You’ll notice a huge difference in how many meters you can cut before you’re hunting for a replacement wheel. Now, there are a few things to keep in mind if you’re setting this up. You have to be precise. The lamp needs to line up perfectly with the cutting head so the heat stays exactly where you want it. And a word of caution: these lamps put out a lot of heat. If your cooling system isn’t up to the task, you might end up warping your guide rails or frying your motor drives. You’ve got to find that sweet spot between the lamp’s wattage and your ventilation so the rest of the machine stays cool. I’d suggest wiring these into a dedicated controller. That way, you can tweak the heat based on how thick the glass is. If you go too hot, you risk thermal shock. Too cold? You’re right back to square one, leaving the wheel to do all the heavy lifting.