Pulsed IR Heating of Thermoplastic Sheets for Thermoforming Applications

Abstract This study presents the pulsed heating strategy as an advancement of the current state of the art in industry towards the theoretically fastest method of heating a thermoplastic sheet. Experimental temperature measurements are combined with an explicit finite difference numerical model to describe the pulsed heating method and indicate its added value in IR heating of thermoplastic sheets. Different process settings are evaluated and indicate the effect of the applied heat flux and the time interval t OFF during pulsed heating. When switched off, the residual heating of the heater elements is able to partially compensate for the convective heat losses at the surface of the sheet. This results in a more uniform temperature distribution through thickness without slowing down the overall heating process. The study shows that this effect is lost when the time interval in which the heater element is switched off, increases. Applying pulsed heating opens up a large processing window to control the through-thickness temperature difference. When the total amount of applied thermal energy is taken into account, pulsed heating is able to increase the overall heating rate and simultaneously keep the temperature difference through thickness limited.