What years had the best quality of SOX bulbs at Osram/GEC's Shaw factory?

I’d say every one since inception 😎, I don’t think any bad lamps came out of Duke Mill👍

I agree all were excellent, but my impression is that they seemed to get even better every year right up to the end.  Whereas other factories began to focus on cost-saving with consequent cost reductions, Osram shut down its production before the others were dragged into that downward spiral.

I best be patient with the 55w osram from 1996 that I have on test then lol

@Danny How many years (or an approximate number of hours) has it done?

It will hit 3 years of dusk - dawn use on 2nd July 2026 and shows little signs of wearing up!

The only exception I think to the top quality lamps produced at Shaw was the 280W SOI lamp.
I had a very expensive and disappointing sudden failure of this lamp and from what I have since heard, several other examples of this lamp have failed or partially failed.
A real shame when all the other lamps were superb.

What way has it failed? @Andy

One of the two arc tubes ruptured after a couple of minutes while running up for the first time.
Here's the lamp.
Biggest waste of money I've ever spent. Still pees me off thinking about it. 

That’s actually heart breaking.id heard of these breaking. Someone said to me once that if I was to ever get one, to never light it. Sorry to hear that happened. I wonder if one arc tube was colder than the other and gave way due to thermal shock!

I've kind of got used to this kind of sht. If it seems to be too good to be true then it probably is or there's a catch.
My luck has always been questionable so I should probably have left it be but curiousity and all that.
It would appear that the top if the failed arc tube was poorly made and this is what burst and ejected molten Na into the outer jacket causing instant short circuit and cracking of the stem and rendering the whole thing nothing but a useless piece of glass and sodium oxide / sodium peroxide.