Infrared Application of the Month #1:
Coating and Drying of Furniture
A furniture manufacturer required heat to apply and dry poyurethane varnish to its wood products. The convection ovens originally installed in the process plagued the line with long drying times. Retrofitting the production line with medium wave infrared heaters from Heraeus Noblelight allowed the drying time to be reduced from two hours to only fifteen minutes. As a bonus, the infrared heaters allowed greater control over the process.
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Infrared Application of the Month #2:
Digital Printing
During development of a new product, a manufacturer of high-throughput digital printing equipment sought the best means to provide heat and drying functions within the process. Ceramic heaters were considered but ultimately rejected due to their relative inefficiency. In the end, the manufacturer chose to equip the digital printing equipment with carbon infrared heaters from Heraeus Noblelight. The lamps' ability to provide evenly-applied, targeted heat on demand, coupled with the long life of the lamps, made the decision an easy one.
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Tech Center Spotlight:
Carbon Mediumwave Heaters
High heating efficiency and rapid cool down make the mediumwave carbon heater from Heraeus the only medium-wave heater to offer you shortwave response times. Suitable for all medium-wave applications, this heater also offers the capability to match temperatures to the optimum absorption wavelength for each application. Together, these features eliminate overheating and contamination of sensitive substrates.
A particular large portion of medium wave radiation is absorbed in water, solvents and plastics and converted into heat. This allows significant benefits: carbon heaters dry printing inks, with less stress for the paper because the radiation acts more intensively on the ink. The high power heater increases print drying speed and reduces drying time. It also heats plastics in a targeted manner, with less heating of the surrounding environment.
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Special Designs:
Spiral Heaters
With heaters in spiral form discs, tubes or rods made of plastics, metal or glass can be heated homogeneously. Compared with conventional heating methods, spiral heaters can provide savings in energy, time and costs. Heraeus offers a wide range of heaters for special applications.
Click HERE to download a brochure on Heraeus spiral heaters.
A wide assortment of other special design heaters is available from Heraeus. Click HERE for details.
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Technical Learning: Is IR Right for My Application?
Electric IR is a special kind of heat source, in that it is a relatively high-temperature source that can be turned on and off almost instantaneously.
Wherever a heat source is needed, electric IR can probably be used. Within each of the categories previously
discussed, major categories are literally hundreds of specific applications. In fact, the number of specific applications is growing as more uses are found for this special heat source. In addition to more traditional uses for electric IR, such as automobile body finishing, relatively new uses, such as drying silk-screened inks on clothing continue to be developed.
Assessment of Your Application
When choosing an electric IR system for your application, you should evaluate both the technical and the economic feasibility.
Technical Aspects
To determine the technical feasibility, gather certain information about your product and your process. This information will help you determine the size (length and height) of the oven, the power density required, and other aspects needed to specify the correct oven.
Economic Considerations
To evaluate the economic feasibility of electric IR, a number of issues need to be considered. The following issues must be addressed to determine the cost of doing business with and without electric IR:
- Remaining life of the current heating equipment
- Current heating capacity
- Energy source for the current heating method
- Annual energy costs of the current heating method
- Current energy charge
- Percentage of material wasted by the current heating method
- Scrap value of the material
- Embedded cost in the scrapped part; material
- Annual labor costs associated with the heating operation
- Annual production throughput
- Space requirements for the current heating equipment
- Annual cost of floor space
- Installed replacement cost for the current heating process
- Payback period required to justify the installation of a new electric IR system
- Expected capacity of the plant in five years
These economic issues can be condensed into five basic costs associated with electric IR heating:
- Equipment
- Labor
- Energy
- Scrap
- Floor space
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That's it for this month's issue of Application Notes for IR Heating. Feel free to encourage your colleagues to subscribe. Just click HERE to send them an invitation to subscribe. It's quick, easy, FREE, and no-obligation.
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