November 1998 issue:

Application Focus
Bottling

The customer
Any company that uses glass bottles for bottling milk, soft drinks, wine, fruit juice, food products, baby food.

Need
To air dry new or recycled bottles after cleaning without moving air that could cause streaking, breakage, or the addition of impurities from the surrounding environment.

Product
Depending on the size of the process, CRP’s (ceramic radiant panels) are the most efficient and convenient method for a conveyorized or tracked bottling system. The number and placement of panels would depend on the speed of the system and the amount of drying required before the bottles reach the next stage of production.

The CRP panel should be the first suggestion because of its convenient size and availability. After consulting with our engineers to determine the required wattage and voltage, the CRP's can be fitted with (3) three LTE (large trough emitters) and shipped to the customer immediately. Remember, two or more CRP’s can be linked together to form any desired size and shape of heated surface.

Smaller applications could use something as simple as an SWB while more detailed or unusual applications could benefit from a custom designed system.

Advantages
The main advantage of using ceramic heaters for bottle drying lies in the very nature of infrared heat. The infrared wavelength is absorbed only by objects, not the surrounding air, so bottles in this case would be receiving the wavelength directly, causing the heat to be used more effectively than convective methods.

Additional advantages are:

Since infrared energy heats the product directly, drying times would be less, eliminating the need for long pre-heat or cool-down cycles.

Because there is no blowing or movement of air, streaking and spotting would be eliminated, and the entire system could be kept dust and contaminate free. This radiant method of drying would cause no movement to the bottles that could cause breakage, there would also be no intense heat changes that could result in cracking.

Ceramic heaters would aid in the sanitary requirements of the bottling industry being non-corrosive, splash resistant, and having a surface able to be cleaned.

Selling Salamander ceramic heaters to any of the bottling industries may depend on their existing application and whether or not drying is required. Even if no heat is currently used, a good salesperson could still suggest the possibility of incorporating infrared heat into their process for the purpose of time savings and the other advantages mentioned above.

The bottling industry is a challenging and unproven market for ceramic infrared heaters. If any reader knows of a bottler currently using ceramic heaters or you are successful in selling to them, please contact The Salamander News as a means of sharing the information.

Environmental Chambers

In our series of articles on application focus, keep in mind that there is a difference between proven applications and potential applications. The potential for using ceramic infrared heaters is limitless and many markets are waiting to be tried and tested. A good rule of thumb to use is that anywhere a gentle, easily controlled heat is needed, there could be a place for ceramic infrared emitters.

The wavelength emission characteristic of ceramic heaters is what could make them a possible choice for use in environmental chambers. Life cycle testing can be affected by moving air which could contaminate the required sterile conditions. Some testing is done with the sole purpose of measuring the effect of infrared energy on a product. While infrared heaters would not be effective in ovens where an even temperature gradient is needed, there can also be applications where spot testing, accelerated life cycle testing, or the effects of temperature difference is required that would be very suitable for using ceramic heaters.

The potential is great for specialized testing facilities, or possibly environmental vacuum systems where convection type heat is an impossibility. As with many other markets, the environmental chamber industry is virtually unexplored territory for ceramic use. It is up to all of us to make these industries aware of ceramic infrared heaters and their possible potential.

Ceramic Elements and Food Applications

This issue of The Salamander News is designed to make you hungry. Not for food, but for the variety of food applications that have yet to discover the advantages of using ceramic elements. One thing I love about this product is the endless possibilities for its use. Ceramic elements are incredibly adaptable to even the most unusual applications. The food industry provides a huge market of possibilities through restaurants, from fast food to fine dining, commercial food producers, and food equipment manufacturers. They can also be used in a variety of processes as listed below.

Baking

Ceramic elements have been used for making ovens for many years. Even though the concept is the same, they have not been used for baking food. Existing oven adaptation might be difficult, but new oven construction is a unique possibility. The oven would function with the same combination convection and radiant heating pattern as traditional ovens, but with the added energy efficiency ceramic heaters offer. Their clean and washable ceramic surface are an added benefit for required hygienic conditions. Conveyor oven systems are even more suitable for ceramic use and more conducive to retrofit.

Warming

Food warming is already a popular application from fast food restaurants such as Kentucky Fried Chicken to exclusive fine dining kitchens as found in the Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids, MI. They provide a gentle, even heat without fear of corrosion or breakage. The manufacturers of food equipment also need to be made aware of the ceramic heater option and its benefits.

Dehydrating

Research and development work done on an apple dehydrating application proved ceramic heaters to be both effective and efficient. Elements may be used in small single unit machines or large conveyor systems. Along with food dehydration, are agricultural applications such as grain drying.

Broiling

A ceramic element certainly doesn't look like a traditional broiling element but it can have a high enough watt density to function like one. Ironically, the shape of a ceramic element provides an advantage in broiling. It can provide much more even heating over a wider area. The HSE (square element) is a good example of the surface area coverage as opposed to a tubular element. Using one or more HSE elements in a small table top broiler or larger commercial broiler could provide obvious benefits.

Toasting

Toaster ovens have as much of a potential for ceramic heater use as broiling. The cleanliness of ceramics can be a strong selling point for both applications since one causes spattering and the other crumbling. The ease of cleaning a ceramic element can prevent grease or food build up that can interfere with heating effectiveness, smoking or burning, and harbor harmful bacteria.

Melting

Ceramic heaters are ideal for a melting operations such as chocolate or cheese. Their gentle, even heating can be easily controlled for such heat-sensitive procedures.

As with most applications, no matter what the market, ceramic elements remain the unknown alternative. Selling must sometimes take a backseat to educating the customer about, what they are, how they work, the differences between them and the heat source they commonly use, and highlighting the benefits they can provide.

It's difficult to get customers to try anything new or make a change. They must have proof or a good presentation showing them the logic behind the change required. The basis for selling ceramic elements must be technology oriented. A customer must understand how they can benefit, if not immediately, then over time. Don't start, or stop, with price. A knowledgeable salesperson should be able to point out the long term cost savings created by more effective production, improved product quality, and overall efficiency.

May 1999 Issue:

Application Focus:

Mirrors: An Application Worth Looking Into

Surprising applications come before us every day. A little investigation can sometimes open the door to new and untried possibilities. The idea of using ceramic infrared heaters with glass applications has intrigued all of us. Annealing and tempering glass would require too high of temperatures to use ceramics, but curing the paint used on the back of mirrors is a perfect application.

Looking back in our files, we found that we had in fact, created an oven design for a manufacturer in India for the purpose of pre-heating and curing the paint on the back of mirrors. The oven they requested had to be large enough to accommodate a mirror 2600mm in width. Two ovens were actually needed, one for pre-heating and the second for curing. In both ovens, a series of CRP panels containing three LTE elements at 1800 watts each was suggested to meet the desired wattages of 40kw and 100kw.

The customer had first requested quartz heaters. We pointed out that ceramic heaters are 96% efficient in converting electricity into infrared energy compared to the quartz efficiency of 85%. Ceramic infrared operates in the medium to long range wave length of the infrared spectrum with 75% of the energy around the 3.0 micron wave length. Quartz operates in the short wave length of the infrared spectrum with 70% of its energy in the .9 to 2.0 micron range. Most paints have an absorption rate at about 3.5 to 4 microns, making ceramic infrared the most efficient radiant heating element to use.

There are many other techniques now done with glass and mirrors that may require pre-heating, drying, curing, or baking and a wide variety of markets using them. Many can be found on the internet or in your local yellow pages. All it takes is one investigative phone call to open a door to a new ceramic infrared customer.

July 1999 Issue:

Preheating Aluminum and Steel

The preheating of metals is often necessary for improving processes of painting, bonding, forming, and the stamping of metal. The low emissivity of metal can make preheating difficult. The process can be more effectively done if the metal is coated or painted before being heated.

If the metal is coated, ceramic heaters can be very effective as an infrared heat source for conveyorized systems. Using ceramic emitters in oven applications enhances the heating by adding infrared heat to the convection process.

Industries that may require the preheating of metals are, furniture manufacturing, aerospace, building products, or automotive. Plastics has replaced metal in so many applications, that identifying end products containing metal may be the best way to pursue potential metal preheating markets.

August 1999 Issue:

December 2001 Issue: