About this industry
A plastics, rubber, or web-converting line lives and dies on heat and temperature — infrared panels shaped to the thermoforming oven, tubular and custom-formed elements built into the platen or mold, line scanners reading every inch of a moving web, and the tension, drive, and hydraulic instrumentation that keeps the line in sync. Prater Technical Partners supplies that layer across Solar Products infrared panel heaters (an infrared heating house — not a photovoltaic company), Aspeq electric heating (Indeeco, Heatrex, Accutherm), Fluke Process Instruments and Raytek thermal measurement, WIKA-ST load cells, Hedland flow meters, Reuland Electric drive motors, and CSZ packaging-test chambers. Prater Technical works with you to spec each one from the material, the line speed, and the oven or tooling drawing.
- Screen-print curing & drying systems—Solar Products Q Series·Solar Custom OEM IR Panels
- Drying water or solvent off heat-sensitive coated webs & textiles—Solar M/G/V (V Series)
- Long, narrow & modular quartz-tube emitter layouts over webs & coatings—Solar Products T Series
- Textile drying & dehydration air—Indeeco Process Air
FAQ: heat & measurement for plastics, rubber & web
Is Solar Products a solar-energy company?
No — Solar Products designs and builds electric infrared panel heaters for thermoforming ovens, curing and drying lines, and web heating; nothing in the line is photovoltaic or solar-energy equipment. The catalog runs from the F Series flat panels to the FBA convection-assist, T Series quartz-tube, Q Series fast-response, and M/G/V specialty panels, plus custom OEM panels and multi-zone oven systems. See the Solar Products page.
How do we hold temperature across a wide web or thermoforming sheet?
Two layers work together: Solar Products multi-zone infrared oven systems put independently controlled panels across the width, and an Ircon / Raytek MP line scanner reads the actual cross-web profile — with EC150 software for extrusion, coating, and lamination and TF150 for thermoforming scrap reduction. Start at Solar Products and the IR pyrometers page.
Can you replace the aged infrared panels in our existing oven?
Yes — Solar Products replaces aged or failed panels in thermoforming oven banks, reproduces obsolete panels in paint, powder-coating, and e-coat curing ovens, and restores screen-printing curing and drying systems. Where the duty has changed, the F, FBA, T, Q, and M/G/V series give a current-production path. See Solar Products.
Who heats the platens, dies, and molds on our presses?
The Aspeq brands cover molding-tool heat: Heatrex OEM elements plus Indeeco and Accutherm tubular and finned tubular elements are clamped, inserted in drilled holes, or cast into platens and dies, and Accutherm custom-formed elements are shaped to the mold cavity itself. All of it is engineered to your tooling — start at the electric heating page.
Do you cover the machinery side — tension, drives, and hydraulics?
Yes. WIKA-ST S-type load cells measure web, wire, and cable tension; Reuland wound-rotor motors give printing presses controlled acceleration, and Reuland synchronous PM motors hold textile and synthetic-fiber lines in sync; Hedland variable-area meters watch injection-molding hydraulic circuits running fire-resistant fluid. See WIKA-ST, Reuland Electric, and Hedland.
Working a thermoforming oven rebuild, a cross-web temperature spec, or a molding-press heat problem? Talk to Scott — send directly to Scott Prater at scott@pratertechnical.com, or call him directly at 917-580-0878 during business hours.
Compiled by Prater Technical Partners.