Infrared dry heaters - do they work?

[Stan B]

I was testing some infrared heaters to speed up drying of solvent printed banners and it looks like the heater made no real difference to speed up drying of the prints.

Do you guys get any real noticeable drying speed improvements at all?

 

[GK]

They work, and they work very well -- the black box ones are pricey, but a quality piece.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Yup, they work great, but there are some things to keep in mind. They don't automatically shut off when the print is done, so if you leave a long run of banners overnight and it stops in the middle of the night, the heaters will probably melt the media or you may come to work to find a burned down building. We left ours sitting on a run of wallpaper for about 30 minutes once and it was starting to turn brown from the heat where it stopped. So you have to watch it closely and make sure you move it from the media when the prints stop.

Also, it takes a few minutes for it to warm up, so it's not really worth setting up for a shorter run. We don't really use ours for anything under 20' or so. It's ideal for long print runs where you're printing an entire roll of material, it's just cumbersome for short jobs.

But it does make a noticable improvement in dry time and ink durability, especially on banners and wallpaper. They're not cheap for what they are, but ours has proven a worthwhile investment.

 

[Printhead]

I absolutely love my infrared heater. I got it running on a Mimaki JV5, which is notorious for its sticky inks, and ever since I go it my prints are ready for lamination as soon as they're done.
It's a Captivair, which also does miracles reducing odors and nasty fumes.
http://www.pattechnology.com/

 

[mgieske]

What's a typical price range for the Captivair units?

 

[Dice]

Ya we have a Captivair for our JV33 and it's awesome! Not the Heater part though. I think we paid about $2-3k don't remember the exact amount. I remember it being cheaper than the alternative air filter systems.

 

[HaroldDesign]

I use the Digi-Dri. Works great! It also has a timer so I can use it for unattended printing at night.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

I use the Digi-Dri. Works great! It also has a timer so I can use it for unattended printing at night.

That's the same one we have, they didn't have the timer feature when we got ours, but I just looked it up and it's exactly what I need...

 

[dlndesign]

Looking at WF Series Rad-Air Infrared Heater, curious if anyone else has had experience with this.

I am also looking into One-Line Dryer.

If anyone has had experience or knows someone who has, please let me know.