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large enough that parts aren't affected by this blow off. To solve this issue and to minimize the part gap on the conveyor line, your best bet is to use an IR oven or booster to melt the powder quickly on the parts. This will minimize or eliminate powder particles being dislodged and blown onto a part of a different color. IR ovens apply di- rect heat to the powder and don't re- quire recirculating air at the begin- ning of the curing process, allowing quick color changes without rejects or rework. If you are dealing with a color change in your line, you'll need to address this issue when you think about increasing productivity. Hanging more parts on the line could definitely help produc- tion numbers. You'll also need to ad- dress this issue in terms of cost savings, since IR ovens have the ability to be switched off or dialed down in tem- perature until the new color parts ar- rive at the oven to conserve energy. It is not feasible to do the same with a convection oven. Whether you're expanding or in- stalling a new system or upgrading an existing one, you'll want to talk about this possibility with all of your finish- ing equipment suppliers to see what works best for your overall process. Double check what the revenue in- crease will be if you can produce more parts. Make sure you're operat- ing as efficiently as possible in order to boost revenue. Finishing up IR ovens are an excellent choice and should be considered for any finishing system, powder coating system, or any heat process. IR is not necessarily the best choice for every process, but it does have many more applications than you might think. Put your mis- conceptions aside and give IR its due consideration, especially in terms of curing time decreases and production rate increases. Although this article has discussed convection ovens in not such glowing POWDER COATING, March 2018 29 Photo 6