Powder Coating Drying “Activator”- High Efficient Heating IR Lamp-Tungsten Quartz Infrared Heaters

In order to have a film with good performance including thinner coating and beautiful surface, high efficient infrared heating technology are more and more used for drying coating with advantages of fast productivity and energy saving.

Quartz infrared heaters has the advantages of high radiation energy, high power intensity, matched absorb wavelength, instantaneous start, and stable infrared radiation heating, which can shorten the coating curing time and have a “catalysis” on the good performance of the coating during curing process.

Using high efficient tungsten infrared quartz heaters for furnace heating and curing can be completed in only 60～90 seconds, while the use of a far infrared furnace for curing takes 15 minutes or more time to complete. The efficiency is increased by more than ten times, and the furnace area is reduced by 70%. The compared energy saving exceeds 50%, which is very efficient curing heaters.

Tungsten quartz infrared heaters adopt infrared electromagnetic wave heating, and there is no intermediate medium to transfer heat. When the radiation spectrum of the heating element (tungsten) matches the absorption spectrum of the heated object (workpiece), the thermal efficiency is the highest, thus achieving energy conservation. The difference between tungsten-infrared heaters and far-infrared elements lies in the response time (from power on to constant temperature) of the heating components: tungsten-infrared heater is 1-2 seconds. Far infrared element is 5-15 minutes; Especially the surface power density of tungsten infrared heaters can reach up to 300KW/m2, but far infrared elements can reach only 60KW/m2.

The advantages of tungsten quartz infrared heaters in coating curing process.

1) Faster Curing

High efficient infrared heating uses radiation to heat the workpiece, which takes only 60～90 seconds to complete curing process; Far infrared heating, on the other hand, involves convective heat transfer, utilizing the heat of the air to conduct and heat the workpiece, which typically takes 15 minutes or longer curing time with lower efficiency.

2）Energy Saving

Theoretically, the curing of the paint film is the product of temperature and time within a certain range. Increasing the temperature can shorten the curing time. Tungsten infrared elements have a very high heating temperature range of 2200～2500℃ （2473K-2773K）.More than 80% of the effective radiant energy can be radiated within 1 - 2 seconds after power on, while the far infrared heater takes 5 - 15 minutes to achieve a similar effect. Quartz infrared tungsten heater lamps can be switched on and off quickly, but the far infrared heating needs to be preheated more than half an hour in advance, and sometimes needs to be cooled after the end of production, so the energy consumption utilization efficiency is lower than sealing quartz infrared heaters.

3）Uniform Curing

High-efficient tungsten quartz infrared heaters are faster heating, and the coating surface receives the same amount of high-infrared radiation energy, resulting in uniform curing; while the temperature difference between the upper and lower parts of the far-infrared heating furnace is large, resulting in uneven curing of the workpiece.