Add an infrared preheat zone to your convection oven to save floor space.

Using an infrared preheat to heat your parts before entering a convection oven can provide substantial savings in floor space. Infrared is great for fast heating, and convection provides a very effective soak at temperature. Combining these technologies provides the benefits of both.

In the example below, the coating requires a 10 minute soak at 330oF (+/-15oF) to properly cure. This would require 25 min of total heating time in a convection oven (figure 1).

If infrared heating alone were used, the coating would get to temperature quickly, but then immediately overheat (figure 2).

By using an infrared preheat to bring the coating up to temperature followed by a convection oven to provide the 10 minute soak at temperature, the total heating time in the oven can be reduced to 15 min -- a 40% reduction (figure 3).

Use the links at the bottom of the page to read a related article:

Combining Infrared & Convection Heating
by Michael Grande of Wisconsin Oven
If you require a continuous oven to dry or cure a wet coating or powder, look into combining infrared and convection heating. Often, it can provide the same results as a conventional convection oven within a smaller equipment footprint.

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