Choosing the Right Carbon Fiber Infrared Heating Tube for Different Materials

Infrared heating has been applied in industrial tunnel furnaces for decades. However, most current tunnel furnaces still use traditional stainless steel electric heating tubes. Due to their low heating efficiency and frequent burnout of heating wires, stainless steel electric heating tubes lead to high maintenance costs and various operational issues.

Most tunnel furnaces are used for heating and curing in the surface coating industry. The traditional metal heating tube process involves maintaining the rated temperature for 15-30 minutes. Because of the long processing time, manufacturers must either slow down the production line or extend the length of the tunnel furnace. This results in longer furnaces that take up more space, leading to significant spatial inefficiency.

Switching to infrared heating technology with carbon fiber heating tubes can reduce the installation power by 50%-70% (using hot air or far-infrared heating), and the curing time can be shortened to 30-180 seconds. The length of the heating furnace can be reduced to just 1/5 to 1/10 of the traditional size. Overall, this can save more than 70% of resources and energy, revolutionizing the traditional heating and curing process in surface coating.

So, how can we choose the right heating tube? How can you ensure that your heating tube works efficiently? The best way is to select the appropriate carbon fiber infrared heating tube.

What Constitutes an Appropriate Heating Tube?

Let’s break it down step by step.

1. Matching Wavelengths: The spectral wavelength of the infrared heating tube must match the absorption wavelength of the material being heated.

As mentioned in the working principle of infrared heating tubes, “When the infrared wavelength emitted by the heating tube matches the wavelength absorbed by the material, the material can absorb a large amount of infrared radiation, causing the molecules and atoms within the material to resonate, which increases the material’s temperature, thereby achieving the heating effect.”

Based on this principle, the first step in purchasing a heating tube is to confirm the wavelength of the heating material and then choose an infrared heating tube that matches that wavelength. Many customers using heating tubes for the first time or for new projects may not know which heating tube is suitable. As a professional manufacturer of infrared heating tubes, we have accumulated years of experience and can help customers find the right infrared heating tube to achieve efficient heating.

2. Determining Whether a Coating is Needed and Which Coating to Choose: Once the type of heating tube is determined, the next step is to decide whether the tube needs a coating and which type of coating to select.

Let’s first discuss why a coating is used and the benefits it provides. When the direction of the heated object is fixed, the coating helps the heating tube to direct and focus the energy carried by the infrared radiation onto the material that needs to be heated. This reduces unnecessary heat loss and results in more efficient heating.

Currently, two types of coatings are available in the market: semi-gold reflective coatings and semi-white reflective coatings. The reflectivity of these coatings is as follows: gold coating at 90% and white coating at 70%. The gold coating can be used in environments with temperatures below 600°C, while the white coating can be used in high-temperature environments of 900-1000°C.

At GlobalQT, we specialize in providing high-quality carbon fiber infrared heating solutions. For more information, please visit our website or contact us at contact@globalquartztube.com.