ELECTRIC INFRARED CONVEYOR OVENS:

• Deliver heat precisely to the surface of the object, without heating the air around it, minimizing energy requirements
• Typically smaller and less expensive because they do not need insulation. By contrast, gas combustion chambers are bulky; the distance between an open flame and products is greater than electric IR, and gas safety and valves take up valuable space.
• Maintain substances at the correct temperature needed for faster, more efficient processing
• Ideal for processes that are heat sensitive
• High heat and high intensity while maintaining a cool exterior for operator safety

• Diverse applications including powder coating, drying, baking, core hardening, fusing, curing ink, adhesive bonding, melting
• Expandable as business needs or processes change
• Easy to clean and maintain
• Less complex venting systems than gas ovens which must also vent combustion
• Multiple heating zones
• Consistent, repeatable results
• Can be portable and even mobile

Gas and electric ovens offer different advantages depending on budget, required capacity, available floor space and the cost of gas versus electricity.

Gas ovens have an open flame that heats air within a chamber and transfers the heated air by convection to the items being conveyed to dry, cure or fuse the product surface.

An electric infrared oven, by contrast, uses infrared radiation (IR) to heat only the surfaces of objects. IR causes the molecules of the surface material to vibrate, generating heat that raises the temperature rapidly without heating the air around it.

The primary advantage of a gas oven is its ability to maintain a constant temperature. The primary disadvantages are longer dwell times to heat the product surface, requiring long oven lengths that increase capital cost and consume floor space.

Gas ovens handle significant volumes of high temperature air, requiring costly air handling systems with motors positioned away from the hot air stream, as well as combustion exhaust systems. They also require complex safety controls to protect operators from combustible pressurized gas and thick insulation to prevent the outer walls of gas ovens from attaining dangerous temperatures.

By comparison, infrared conveyor ovens are smaller and less expensive because they do not require insulation, and are shorter in length due to reduced dwell times, since infrared radiation attains curing temperatures more rapidly and efficiently than heated air.

Unlike installed gas ovens, Vastex infrared conveyor ovens are also expandable by adding one or two additional heating chambers and lengthening the conveyor belt, allowing belt speeds and output to be doubled or tripled.