Elements
The most common filament material used for electrical infrared heaters is tungsten wire, which is coiled to provide more surface area. Low temperature alternatives for tungsten are carbon, or alloys of iron, chromium and aluminum (trademark and brand name Kanthal). While carbon filaments are more fickle to produce, they heat up much more quickly than a comparable medium-wave heater based on a FeCrAl filament.
Industrial infrared heaters sometimes use a gold coating on the quartz tube that reflects the infrared radiation and directs it towards the product to be heated. Consequently the infrared radiation impinging on the product is virtually doubled. Gold is used because of its oxidation resistance and very high IR reflectivity of approximately 95%.
Read more about this topic: Infrared Heater
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