Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Curing and Drying Operations: The Pros and Cons of Infrared Heating
Curing and Drying Operations: The Pros and Cons of Infrared Heating
Customer Direct
Pros and Cons of Infrared Heating Licensed for distribution to the customers
of E SOURCE members
Low thermal efficiencies are common in many types of process heat- emitter. Depending on the product, this can be either an
ing equipment, making process heating a prime candidate for energy- advantage or a disadvantage: Flat parts absorb energy best;
complex curved parts require either more IR emitters or sup-
saving improvements. In this pamphlet, we focus on opportunities
plemental convection-heating technology. Additionally,
within drying and curing operations to improve energy use, product
because IR heating only heats the surface of the material, it
quality, and overall productivity. In many cases, infrared heating or leads to significant energy savings when drying and curing
hybrid systems that combine infrared and convection technology paints and coatings: no heat is wasted on the underlying mate-
offer several advantages over convection heating alone. rials. Table 1 summarizes the comparison between IR and
convection heating.
Curing and Drying with Infrared One company that switched from convection heating to IR
Infrared (IR) radiation is commonly used to dry textiles and isnt looking back. Like most of its competitors, a Chrysler
paper products, heat metals and plastics, and dry and cure automobile assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois, had been
paints. For drying and curing operations, infrared heating using standard gas convection ovens for its paint-drying
offers several potential advantages over convection heating. process. Chrysler switched to electric IR ovens and found that
not only was the energy use for the drying process reduced by
IR Versus Convection Heating
50 percent but the quality of the finishes improved.
Medium-wavelength electric IR heating is especially well-
suited to the curing and drying of coatings, because these Gas Versus Electric IR Heating
wavelengths correspond well with the absorption bands for IR radiation is generated using one of three different tech-
water, which most coatings contain. Additionally, since IR nologies: electric, gas catalytic, or radiant gas (and radiant gas
heating does not penetrate the surface very deeply and gener-
Table 1: Comparison of heating technologies for curing and drying
ally only heats the outer surface, it is applicable for drying Infrared heating offers several potential advantages over convection heating for
coated and printed products. In fact, many coatings and inks curing and drying operations. Electric infrared technology offers more flexibility
than gas-catalytic in terms of the desired heating intensity.
are now being specifically designed to be cured with IR
heaters, by modifying the absorption characteristics of the IR technology
Convection
coatings to match the wavelengths emitted by the heaters. Advantages/features oven Gas Electric
Distributes heat evenly, even for products with complex
Using IR heating can also facilitate the use of water-based shapes
rather than solvent-basedcoatings, which reduces emissions Not sensitive to reflective properties of coatings
of volatile organic compounds. Lower-cost energy source (when compared in dollars per
unit of energy consumed)
Uses less energy when only surface heating is required
But perhaps the greatest advantage of IR heating over convec-
Provides well-controlled, low-intensity heat
tion heating is that IR emitters can deliver heat in exact Provides highest-intensity heat
amounts directly to a specific point. IR radiation is a line-of- Intensity can be easily adjusted for different products
sight technology, meaning that it only delivers heat to the Note: IR = infrared. Source: Platts