One of the most effective and fastest methods for hardening paint in an industrial environment is the method of surface treatment of a product with infrared radiation. For this, a special device is used - infrared drying. The time it takes for the paint to dry and the quality of the paintwork as a whole depends on its technical characteristics. What is drying infrared and what is remarkable, you can find out here and now.
Paint Hardening Methods
At the moment, there are several ways to distinguish, thanks to which, for industrial purposes, the devices dry quickly after applying a certain layer of paint on them:
· Convective (using a stream of hot air).
· Thermo-radiation (using infrared radiation).
· Combined (a combination of the first two).
Among them, the most effective, of course, is infrared radiation. Infrared drying (including IRT) allows you to process almost all types of paints and primers, including water-based and acrylic. At the same time, the apparatus allows to significantly accelerate the process of hardening of the primer or putty. The material on which the wave radiation enters passes from a liquid state to a solid state, which is called hardening, in the language of specialists. Moreover, the whole process takes a maximum of 5 minutes.
Technical features
Infrared short-wave drying operates as follows. After connecting the device to a power source (this is usually an alternating electric current) in the tool being processed, the first layer of paint is heated first, which in turn completely prevents the exit of the solvent. This happens when short-wave infrared drying works. Long-wave devices transmit their energy by convection heating. Thus, the source that radiates heat to the surface of the paintwork mechanism is heated to a temperature of about 700-750 degrees Celsius, after which the heating level of the drying object itself increases only to 40 degrees. As a result, the cooling period of the device will be at least 15-20 minutes, while it will take up to 1-2 minutes to harden the paint layers.
By the way, the heating temperature in long-wave devices is much higher than that of short-wave ones. Such infrared drying can be heated up to 1450 degrees Celsius. Consequently, the heating of the drying object also increases. Due to this, most of the thermal energy (up to 75 percent) emitted by the device does not fall on the upper, but on the lower contour of the paint, after which hardening also occurs on the outside of the coating.
Where are they used?
Modern infrared drying is used in many sectors of the economy and industry, as it is able to quickly bring to the desired condition the surface of almost any material: MDF, decorative glassware, metal car bodies and much more. All this makes it indispensable in the industrial coloring of products and mechanisms.