IR Heater Waxing

[SlideWright]

IR heaters are great for working in cold garages but that one looks too big for waxing skis. You want something small you can hold in your hand. You're gonna need to build some kind of rack to hold a big IR. It would be cool to build something that moves the lamp along the length of the ski, but I don't have room for that.

dm

The waxing is secondary but looks like worth exploring to see where that takes me. Units like this come with tripods, wall or ceiling mounts. I also have roller stands that could easily roll skis under a lamp, and/or with the tripod on casters.

 

[Swiss Toni]

A Swiss ski shop owner came up with the idea to use infrared radiation to wax ski bases, he obtained a patent for his invention in 2005 and set up a company http://www.bolt-wax-future.com/ to manufacture what he called the Wax Future. The machines were initially sold by Montana and are currently sold by Reichmann and Wintersteiger, there are 2 versions, the Wax Future with 1 2000w quartz infrared halogen lamp that can wax up to 20 pairs/h and the Wax Future Speed Wall which uses 2 1500w lamps and can wax up to 40 pairs/h.

The instructions for the Wax Future Speed Wall recommend that 1 emitter should be used for soft and medium hard waxes and both emitters for hard waxes. Cross-country skis should only be waxed using 1 emitter. (Especially cross-country skis with honey-comb construction as they are very sensitive).

Here in Europe the infrared lamps and the reflectors used in the Wax Future are readily available https://www.victorylighting.co.uk/infrared-lamps https://www.victorylighting.co.uk/lampholders I don’t think they are as widely available in the US. In recent years the Chinese have started selling infrared heaters at very reasonable prices that can easily be adapted to make an infrared ski waxer
https://www.liangdigroup.com/ If you decide to get one of the Chinese heaters try to make sure that the lamps are replaceable as some of them have lamps that cannot be replaced.

As with paint curing lamps and patio heaters the Wax Future uses short wave quartz infrared halogen lamps, these only emit a relatively small amount of medium wave infrared radiation.

Polyethylene readily absorbs medium wave IR at wavelengths between 2.5 and 4 μm, so the lamps used in the Wax Future seem to be less than ideal, a carbon or medium wave emitter might work better.

The patent claims that the infrared radiation opens the pores in the ski base and therefore allows the wax to penetrate deeper into the base than when a conventional waxing iron is used. As we all know or should know by now there are no pores in UHMWPE ski bases, wax doesn’t penetrate into the base by more than a few nanometers, infrared waxing my produce a better bond between the wax and the base, but it certainly won’t make the wax penetrate into the base.

Ideally you would mount the IR heater on some sort of linear rail so that you could slide the heater over the ski. This gives you a lot better control over the temps as you can more easily maintain a constant height and speed.

 

[Philpug]

I have one of the infrareds from Mountain Flow that I am playing with it. Comparing to the quick wax version, the infrared is no faster for doing skis .. in fact it takes longer and considering how many skis we have to do from time to time, it is less efficient. The time it takes to wave the unit over the skis and do the passes, is very time consuming. The idea of the Wax Future with the automated passes is appealing but not at the cost ... let along not having the wall space for it.

With that said does it work? Absolutely. Is it any better ie faster on snow than our quick wax or Liquid Paraffin. we didn't notice any difference.

 

[cantunamunch]

So... talking of things more Euro than US... have any of you installed a bathroom IR warmer

 

[SlideWright]

So... talking of things more Euro than US... have any of you installed a bathroom IR warmer

Using this 250W 'IR' bulb in a can light:

 

[SlideWright]

Excellent info @Swiss Toni. Thanks!

As a mock up, here's a pair of rolling stands and a shop light with the above bulb on a camera tripod. Ideally, with this approach, the IR Heater should be between the skis and facing along the skis since they need to be tilted 45°.

The 180°F-ish temp on the base was with (1) 250W bulb. The sheen went away from the polished base (LP2 Red) where the it was the hottest after 10 seconds or so for these shots. Obviously. duration and distance would have to be dialed to use any kind of DIY IR set up.

 

[cantunamunch]

Using this 250W 'IR' bulb in a can light:

Now imagine bathrooms regularly kitted out with 1200-2000 W IR heaters.

 

[SlideWright]

Now imagine bathrooms regularly kitted out with 1200-2000 W IR heaters.

Toasty buns, but coupled with infloor is even better.

 

[cantunamunch]

Toasty buns,

and clearer mirrors and less condensation overall, esp. for wider wall mounts.

 

[cantunamunch]

View attachment 228748

WRT temp gun calibration - how much difference is there between light on and light off? Yes, I know it will vary by angle, structure and the specific spectrum of the heater.

 

[SlideWright]

WRT temp gun calibration - how much difference is there between light on and light off? Yes, I know it will vary by angle, structure and the specific spectrum of the heater.

Good point:

 

[cantunamunch]

Wait - you turned the heater light off during a melt cycle and the ski is measuring 66F on the IR gun? Is that what I'm seeing?

 

[SlideWright]

It was a quick read at max 185 deg with IR bulb on and then max read of 68 deg on bench 40 mins later at close to ambient temp.

 

[cantunamunch]

It was a quick read at max 185 deg with IR bulb on and then max read of 68 deg on bench 40 mins later at close to ambient temp.

Ah. Gotcha. If you can get the temp just before and right after lamp turn-off that would be interesting.

 

[SlideWright]

Ah. Gotcha. If you can get the temp just before and right after lamp turn-off that would be interesting.

Yeah, I realized that after the last post. That would be interesting to know. I was more interested at the general concept at that point. Probably best to test on something other than skis, at different durations and distances away.