Infrared Paint Curing Lamps

[JoeLee]

Wondering if anyone knows anything about these? I'm in the process of painting several machine parts and it's starting to get a little cooler around here. In a few more weeks I'll probably have to fire up the furnace in the shop. I want to avoid doing that just to paint parts. I spray my parts outside and then bring them in to dry / cure. I thought of getting one of these infrared paint lamps to hang the parts in front of during and after painting. I guess there are different wave lengths of IR and I'm not sure which is used for this purpose.

JL...............

[Mark Rand]

I used a couple of 2kW halogen heat lamps when painting my Hardinge. That was with 2-pack Urethane. They certainly sped up the curing of the paint. If it's just alkyd resin paint, instead of 2-pack then be a bit careful to avoid the paint skinning over quickly and not letting the solvents from the body of the paint evaporate, thus lengthening the total setting time.

[boslab]

I bought an infra red patio heater lamp for the shop, wonder if it cures paint
mark

[JoeLee]

I have two of these, made them back in the mid 80's. They are quartz heaters, don't remember where I bought them, Sears maybe. I made the stands out of 1 1/2" sq. tube. The heater pivots between horizontal and vertical and the height is adjustable. They throw some heat but not the same as IR.
Had to remove the tilt sensor from them so they wouldn't shut off when moved from the horizontal position.

JL....................

[JoeLee]

I bought an infra red patio heater lamp for the shop, wonder if it cures paint
mark

Not sure as there are different wave lengths of IR. I don't know what the paint curing heaters use. Haven't researched them much yet.
I think the IR ones will heat something that is with in it's range and field but not throw heat that will warm the shop up.

JL................

[Tim Clarke]

Joe, I really like the photo, the floor covering, and especially the ‘50s Craftsman cabinet saw.

[JoeLee]

Joe, I really like the photo, the floor covering, and especially the ‘50s Craftsman cabinet saw.

Thanks Tim. That's my little up stairs wood shop.
The saw and jointer were my grandfathers.

JL..............

[JoeLee]

Did a quick search and found this info.

https://www.pfonline.com/articles/understanding-infrared-curing

JL................

[darryl]

Unless that is specifically infrared-cured paint, I wouldn't worry about it. Just supply heat in the best way you can. The halogen lamp idea works pretty well. I once made up a grid of the little 20 watt halogen bulbs, and pinned it to a sheet of insulating board. Two grids actually, and two boards. Space them apart to suit the workpiece. In my case I used 12v halogens and ran the grids from my 12v power supply. Those bulbs got hot- but the total energy was only about 250 watts. It basically was a dozen or so hot spots- don't touch them by accident-.

Then I realized that heat rises, and a bathroom light fixture with room for 4 screw-in lightbulbs just laying on the floor was perfectly fine. Hang the workpiece above it and you're good to go. You can go from 80 watts to 400 watts just by choice of bulbs. If you want to box it in you can. At the time I used ceiling board- the yellow stuff with vinyl on the show side and bare insulation on the other. I went 'all out' and grooved some pieces of 2x4 so I could insert the ceiling board and they would just stand wherever I set them. One on each side of the hanging workpiece and that was all I needed. Avoiding touching, and looking directly at the halogens was the hardest thing about it.

And yeah, you'd want to preheat the part enough so it can avoid collecting moisture outside while you paint it.

[Paul Alciatore]

I have a painting area for small parts. It is in an unheated shed so drying time can be longer in the winter months. This area is between two shelves and is about 2' x 2' x 6'.

I read that web page that JoeLee posted and what I got out of it is most paints just need some heat to dry faster and better. No specific wavelengths of light were mentioned. A lot was made about the straight line, directional nature of light, IR or otherwise, but in my experience the part being painted usually absorbs the heat and distributes it more or less uniformly. That works better with metal parts, but if left for longer times (hours) and there is little air circulation, wood and plastic parts also heat up well. Powder coat seems to be different and I have no experience there.

I simply use two of the heat bulbs that are available in most hardware stores as well as WalMart and others. These heat bulbs are used for heating small rooms, like bathrooms. They are in a couple of inexpensive, clamp-on, reflector style fixtures. That allows me to adjust their distance to the part and to easily move them out of the way while I spray. For drying paint I usually try to place them about one foot from the parts.

[macona]

I have used one of the infrared bug-eye propane heaters to do powder coat. Worked really well. Just make sure paint fumes have cleared or poof!

[JoeLee]

Unless that is specifically infrared-cured paint, I wouldn't worry about it. Just supply heat in the best way you can. The halogen lamp idea works pretty well. I once made up a grid of the little 20 watt halogen bulbs, and pinned it to a sheet of insulating board. Two grids actually, and two boards. Space them apart to suit the workpiece. In my case I used 12v halogens and ran the grids from my 12v power supply. Those bulbs got hot- but the total energy was only about 250 watts. It basically was a dozen or so hot spots- don't touch them by accident-.

Then I realized that heat rises, and a bathroom light fixture with room for 4 screw-in lightbulbs just laying on the floor was perfectly fine. Hang the workpiece above it and you're good to go. You can go from 80 watts to 400 watts just by choice of bulbs. If you want to box it in you can. At the time I used ceiling board- the yellow stuff with vinyl on the show side and bare insulation on the other. I went 'all out' and grooved some pieces of 2x4 so I could insert the ceiling board and they would just stand wherever I set them. One on each side of the hanging workpiece and that was all I needed. Avoiding touching, and looking directly at the halogens was the hardest thing about it.

And yeah, you'd want to preheat the part enough so it can avoid collecting moisture outside while you paint it.

I've never heard about any paint that specifically required IR to cure.
Not any automotive paints that I use anyway. Any type of heat speeds up the process. My quartz heaters have always worked fine. IR will only heat a part that is directly in front of it and with in it's range, it won't heat up a room. All automotive paints specify dry times at various temperatures. Some will fully cure with IR in a matter of hours as opposed to over night with out.

JL...............

[JoeLee]

I have a painting area for small parts. It is in an unheated shed so drying time can be longer in the winter months. This area is between two shelves and is about 2' x 2' x 6'.

I read that web page that JoeLee posted and what I got out of it is most paints just need some heat to dry faster and better. No specific wavelengths of light were mentioned. A lot was made about the straight line, directional nature of light, IR or otherwise, but in my experience the part being painted usually absorbs the heat and distributes it more or less uniformly. That works better with metal parts, but if left for longer times (hours) and there is little air circulation, wood and plastic parts also heat up well. Powder coat seems to be different and I have no experience there.

I simply use two of the heat bulbs that are available in most hardware stores as well as WalMart and others. These heat bulbs are used for heating small rooms, like bathrooms. They are in a couple of inexpensive, clamp-on, reflector style fixtures. That allows me to adjust their distance to the part and to easily move them out of the way while I spray. For drying paint I usually try to place them about one foot from the parts.

Yes, heat bulbs were used in the "old days" I remember shops using them. I also remember how easy those big bulbs break and what happens when one does.
A common problem with them was if the bulb accumulated a lot of over spray and dust they would blow when they heated up.

I've seen IR paint curing lamps from 1000 watts to 10,000. Try getting that out of bulbs. What would be the difference in power consumption between the two ?

JL.............

[BCRider]

Some special paints might need a minimum temperature to kick off a chemical reaction. I'm thinking some of the more exotic two part paints. But really for most common paints it's just a case of helping the solvents to evaporate. And for some "proper" enamels that contain oils which polymerize on exposure to air to speed up the process. So just basic warmth is the key. it's not some special wavelength that it needs.

If you have any sort of heater on hand you could arrange some sort of shroud around the hanging parts that will hold in the warm air and do the same thing. Perhaps even better since it would be warm around all the surfaces instead of only where the light hits the part. It just needs sides and a top with a small vent opening to permit the warm air with the solvent fumes to escape. This impromptu paint "oven" could be made from just about anything from a big old cardboard box to just a way to hang an old blanket up to close off a corner where you can put in the heater and leave a "chimney" opening to let the fumes get out.

In fact a bigger size cardboard box with an old hair dryer set on low heat and low fan poked into a hole in the bottom and with just the usual opening between the flaps on top would work like a charm.

[JoeLee]

Some special paints might need a minimum temperature to kick off a chemical reaction. I'm thinking some of the more exotic two part paints. But really for most common paints it's just a case of helping the solvents to evaporate. And for some "proper" enamels that contain oils which polymerize on exposure to air to speed up the process. So just basic warmth is the key. it's not some special wavelength that it needs.

If you have any sort of heater on hand you could arrange some sort of shroud around the hanging parts that will hold in the warm air and do the same thing. Perhaps even better since it would be warm around all the surfaces instead of only where the light hits the part. It just needs sides and a top with a small vent opening to permit the warm air with the solvent fumes to escape. This impromptu paint "oven" could be made from just about anything from a big old cardboard box to just a way to hang an old blanket up to close off a corner where you can put in the heater and leave a "chimney" opening to let the fumes get out.

In fact a bigger size cardboard box with an old hair dryer set on low heat and low fan poked into a hole in the bottom and with just the usual opening between the flaps on top would work like a charm.

Here is the tech data sheet for the primer I use. Scroll down bottom of the first page it gives the drying times. Infra Red short wave10 to 13 minutes vs air drying at 68 degrees 10 - 12 hrs.

So there has to be something about the IR that is different than heat from an electric element or such.

https://www.coatingsmall.com/cap_data_docs/documentum/RM/Technical_Manuals/English/RTME-und-EPssurfacer.pdf

JL..................